Hey All:

For many months I've been thinking about returning to the hobby of my youth. Finally a couple of weeks ago I went into my local hobby shop just to look around and I bought a little Guillow's Cessna 150, rubber power....just like the ones I used to spend hours on when I was a young teen. Well building it, flying and crashing it brought back a lot of fine memories. It was nice to see I could still build even though I'm still averaging one major repair for every two flights! But it was fun. In fact it was so much fun that I knew for sure I wanted to build and fly a "real" plane!
So I've read much, done some research and lurked in the forums here to learn more about all this RC business and to figure out what kind of model I should get and where I should buy it. I think I now know that the plane for me is going to be the Sig Kadet Senior in the full kit. This plane looks to be a good trainer and it should satisfy my love of building. The engine I think will be a GMS .47 2 stroke. This is not an overly pricey engine but it should still have lots of power. I will be buying these and most of everything else I need online from Hobby Wholesale. I would like to support my local hobby shop but the same items will cost me $150 more there and that's a bit too much support!
I have no clue at all about the radio equipment that I should get but I assume it's going to take me some time to build this puppy and I'll figure it out before I'm finished.
I wonder what you all might think of my choices of equipment and supplier. Are there other things I need to obtain besides the radio? I know about having to buy wheels, prop, gas tank and cover material but maybe there are some major items that I'm missing. How long should a build like this take? Weeks, months?? Is buying online a big hassle not worth the savings?
I am preparing a spare room in my house as a shop. I'll have a 4x8 bench top of 3/4 MDF covered with ceiling tile which I hope will work well. I don't know much about any special tools I'll need. I do have a sneaky suspicion that there is a whole lot of stuff a guy will need to spend money on in order to be into this great hobby!!
Anyway I'm very excited about all this. I'm going to wait a few more days before I place my order to make sure I'm getting all I should.
In the mean time I would appreciate any tips, advice, warnings or eye opening horror stories you guys might have for a greenhorn! Thanks.

Fred