I'm a newb myself, but I will offer my thoughts on the subject. Personally, I chose to go with an RTF plane for my first. I plan to build in the future, but I didn't want to invest the time and energy to do a build for a plane that will most likely incur some damage while I'm learning. Since you have flight experience already, you might feel differently.

Just my $0.02. Good luck! [8D]