RE: electric or gas.
Go back to the post No 16 & click on the link I put there - details of a slow stick.
Gas on a slow stick - no way. Small models are now popular because simple, quiet, reliable electric power has made the noisy, fiddly, unreliable tiny gas engines previously used on small models all but extinct, a few enthusiests still love them, the other 99.9% fly electric.
A computer radio costs more because it does more - 99% of the features not needed to fly a trainer.
Go to the 'close by' hobby shop, get them to direct you to a club & follow their advice. OR go to the shop, buy the slow stick (or similar) from him along with the basic 4 channel radio & accessories to fly the model & follow his advice. It may cost a little more to buy it from him but you will need his advice - hopefully he will be a flyer & steer you in the right direction. DO NOT buy everything cheap by mail order & expect him to help you out, the world does not work that way! Good luck - John.