I was in your shoes in Dec. and all these guys told me to go find a club, get an instructor and read the Forums. Well they were right. The plane I thought I wanted (Hanger 9 Mustang PTS) was discouraged by the instructor assigned to me the first night I went to the club meeting. He took me to the local junkyard junkie (evidently every club has the guy who buys everybody's old equipment and feels the need to fill up his basement with all this equipment) where I bought a used NextStar with OS46 and Futaba 6 channel for $150. I also spent another $50 on a field box, battery, charger, starter, glow igniter and misc parts.

I must say the advice I got on this Forum regarding the local club and instructor was right on. I got assigned a old retired guy that went out of his way to help me through the learning process and accomodated my limited free time for flying. It has been a great time and I now have 8 planes and look forward to someday flying a warbird.

One note that I did not find on this forum. After I got my wings I took the time to say a big thankyou to my instructor and gave him a $100 gift card to the LHS. I think its important to recognize the time these instructors spend with a student. Heck he probably saved me $500 in expense had I stepped into the LHS unknowledgable.
Good luck, Jerry.