I started wit the same setup as you. I bought the SuperCub, and two days later, the flight fairy hit me and I was hooked! I immediatley went to a nitro set up. The initial expense really involves your field flight pack. You can spend allot of money for the"latest nd Greatest" but I recommend starting with the basics. Fuel (15/16%), an electric starter is a must if have if you plans on staying in the sport. A chicken stickwill work fine, but with tempormental engines, you will really grow to appreciate an elecrtic starter. A flight box can be purchased or made. There are plans on ther net to build these. A "multitool" for glow plugs, is a plus but optional. A rechargeable glow plug ignitor (a back-up is nice to have)
and a spare glow plug are a must. I prefe to use a digital mutil meter with D/C capabilities for reading battery life. A hand operated fuel pump is also a must. Most trainer models
that are either an ARF or RTF come with everything you need for the "airplne", but they assume you have everything else to get in the air. As this is like golf, your initial expense are the clubs, but playing the corses are pretty cheap. I would suggest buying a few items perweek and build a quality flight pack that will grow with you. Once you go nitro, it is very difficult to go back to electric. You will most likley get better and bigger planes like sport models, racers, 3-D, ect. A properly built flight pack will grow with you.
Good luck! one thing would highly recommend is a quality (and quantity) of thin & medium CA an CA accerlerator as well as some 5 and 12 minute epoxy. As we all know,
gravity is not our best fiend, but CA can help with those "hard" landings
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I started with the Hangar 9 Alpha 40 RTF. You can see the plane on their website, [link=http://www.hangar9.com] It came with the radio, servos, engine, and was easily built in about 4 hours. The same is available in a ARF and take about 10 hours to build for the novice. Note in the ARF case, the kit has some "not included but necessary" accessories to complete. These are in-expensive but they do all add up.
Good luck an keep us posted! It's 5:00 am and I'm packng up to go fly myself! It's only 23 degrees out, but the sun is shinning!!
DJ Culver