Welcome jacksonjrs!

I'm not really qualified to give an opinion about the EP version(sorry), but I did like the glow-powered version as my trainer. Not certain what your "background in flight" means, but if you've never flown R/C before I would recommend you find a flying club nearby and see if an instructor can help you set up your plane and learn to fly. That way you might not need to use your extra parts... Good Luck...Len