Hi there!

As a newbie myself, from BC, I think I have some usefull infromation for you. Join the local club, in your area it is probably pretty big so chances are you can get some good used stuff like radios, starters, and most importantly advice from them. I joined our local club a few months ago and have been overwhelmed with the amound of support available to new R/C'ers. It's comforting to have someone with 30+ years of experience to double check your work on your airplane, and to help you get it in the air when you are done! Some clubs have swap meets too, there is one in Kamloops on Nov 2nd if you are up for a drive!

If you have to buy anything new, avaid the American web-based dealers. With freight and duties, you will end up paying way more than you have to. www.greathobbies.com is Canadian, and they ship out of Edmonton for us westerners, so you get your stuff quickly. There is also a guy in Nakusp, the shop is called Lester's Hobbies, and beleive it or not his pricing is even better than Great Hobbies! You can get his number out of the paper.

Don't be afraid to buy yourself an ARF trainer like the SIG LT-40. They build pretty easy, and as a Dad, they can be fun to work on with your boys. They are extremley flexible down the road too, once th whole family has learned to fly with it, throw some floats or skis on it!

You can buy a simple radio for now, get whatever your club instructor says, it will probably end up staying with your trainer anyway. When you get into your next plane(s) you will want something that can hold more models and do funkier things.

By the way, nobody ever told me before I got started at this....it's not a hobby, its a sickness!