Ok. I havent been submitting posts lately due to summer education programs and a heck load of work. I do however hold a soloed membership card of a club. Im soloing for almost half a year now. Ive been to the flight line with my trainer plenty of times. (Check out my gallery to see what im flying). Currently im looking for a good kit to begin with, but now to your problem. I have found it best to fly gas planes, not electric ones. Electric foamies as you have mentioned are all very light and they suck when it comes to slight winds. I had a cessna 150 RTF. I had no flying experiences, no instructor, and i was just fooling around with a 150 $. Dumb idea. Its sitting in a pile of rubbish. I was gifted a RTF .46 Tower Hobbies trainer by a man who brings nothing but good to this world (J3FAN, God Bless You). I located a club and got the courage to ask my dad to take me there once for a whole day of learning. I learned so much, and since im young, which seems to be the reason why i soloed so fast (i think 4 trips to the field did it). Old people always say its because young people use joysticks for video games and have much better coordination. In my case it was just a poop load of hours on FMS. Anyway, back to your problem. Why no instructor? I thought i could do it, and i trashed it, i have to supply my own hobby goods because my dad doesn't trust in the hobby ( but after coming to the field with me, hes beginning to like it). So just go to a club, you don't even have to become a member to learn. THey will provide you with guidance. There RC clubs here in the states are great. You live in NY, what part? LEt us know what you decide. I recommend gas trainers, due to stability in wind and just the thought that you will have to care for something, like cleaning it, tuning it, makes it more fun then EP. Good luck.