manks, You can actually get in the air for under $300 here in the states with brand new stuff. A Tower Trainer RTF is $259 leaving enough money for a glow ignitor, chicken-stick & a gallon of fuel. That gets you in the air. An Instructor will get ya back on the ground!
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...I=LXCXF4**&P=0
This is a great RTF plane too. Even though I have moved on to bigger better planes, I still fly the Tower all the time. It's fun.
Tower allmost allways has some sort of discount going on that will either bring the price down or at least eat up the shipping cost.