I bought my NexStar RTF a little over one month ago, along with all of my field equipment, and solo'd on it recently. I have to say that I love this plane. It puts up with all kinds of abuse, and is very easy to fly. The OS .46 FXi is nothing short of awesome. I've never had any kind of trouble starting and it's very easy to tune.

That said, if I were to start over today I would certainly do things differently. I would buy the NexStar again, but the ARF this time, then a .46 OS engine, and a 6 or 7 channel radio kit. The AFS, speed brakes, airfoils - all useless, don't use them. The simulator, I found, was also pretty poor, and if you're flying with an instructor, you won't need it. The nice part about this setup is that you can get all this for less than the RTF model and have a nicer radio that you can use in the future, rather than the puny 4ch Futaba.