Hi Shortymet55, glad to hear you want to step up your RC flying efforts. I started out with a Nexstar Select RTF plane after I got tired of bashing around my Hobbyzone Aerobird Challenger into the ground. Learning to fly with a glow-powered plane and a flight instructor at a club was much easier for me than tossing my electric plane around a soccer field and trying to figure things out on my own.

I found that the larger, heavier, more powerful glow trainer handled windy conditions much better than my lighter, weaker electric plane. It also had a more positive control response and the plane went where I told it. My electric plane sometimes seemed to have a mind of its own.

You might be surprised at how affordable a really good glow-powered ready to fly trainer package really is. My local Hobbytown USA sells a house brand trainer packaged for them by Hobbico that has a 63" wingspan and comes with a Futaba 4YF radio system pre-installed and an O.S. .40 LA engine all for only $229.99. If you don't have a Hobbytown USA store near you, it might be worth checking out some really great deals that eHobbies.com has on some Thunder Tiger RTF trainer super combos:

http://www.ehobbies.com/ttr4523-f12.html

http://www.ehobbies.com/ttr4556-f12.html

That second package with the Pegasus .40 ARF, Hitec radio system, and Thunder Tiger GP-42 engine all preinstalled with prop and spinner for $219.99 is a really terrific deal. The Tiger Trainer .40 MkII super combo offered in the first link is also a great package at $229.99.

These are high quality airplanes with terrific radio systems and engines that can offer you years of flying service, instead of flying them for only a few weeks or months like a typical electric ready-to-fly airplane.

If the wind blows much in Maryland, you'll find learning to fly easier with a good glow-powered plane. That Pegasus .40 ARF boasts a 70" wingspan that is easy to see in the air, and at $219.99 you're not going to find an electric airplane package that is anywhere near the value of this full sized nitro trainer.