Kul,
Come on down to the electric forums:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/default.asp?forumid=227
For your price point, you'll probably want a foamie electric. Look at the parkflier threads:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_148/tt.htm
Electric Trainer:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_102/tt.htm
A lot of people are recommending the SuperCub for a first plane. It is what I went with. You get everything you need to fly for about $140 if you shop around. It comes with plane, radio, batteries, electronics, spare prop, etc. It is an all-in-one that takes about a half hour to put together out of the box. The super cub thread can explain where to slap on some packing tape before you fly it to make it almost indestructible (leading edges of wings in case you fly into a tree, fence, etc).
You can see tons of people flying and posting about their experiences here. For sub $100 I think there is the accipiter badius? Check out the Badius Owners Club thread in th eparkflyers section. They're funny guys.
There are sims available as well. I started on one. FMS is a free simulator you can download. If you buy a "real" radio then you can use it with your computer. However, if you buy one of these lower cost planes that "come with everything" you cannot use those slimmed down radios. No sweat. You can by the Esky package on Ebay for $20. It comes with FMS on a disk (I know you can d/l it for free), but the real gem is the little controller that looks and feels like a real radio except it has a USB plug and goes right into your computer. It was definitely worth the $20 and I practised and played on that sim before giving my supercub its first flight. Go to ozrcboy's site:
http://www.oz********.com/2007/03/le...ers-guide.html
He's got great guides and he has the supercub model you can download that works with FMS.
I think the parkflyer foamy crowd is where you'll find a beginner plane in your price range. You could always move up to the glow/gas/AMA type crowds later.
EDIT: Found the super cub for $115:
http://myrcsupply.net/index.php?main...ducts_id=14081