I checked out the Taylorcraft kit on the Tower website, sure is a cute model.

For me, any small model I build now is electric. The lack of mess & fuss, no cylinder or muffler hiding problems, the long life of the models & the ease of finishing without worrying about fuel proofing has won me over & in the smaller sizes electric power is now more than price competitive. Charging smaller systems like you would need would not be a problem either.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_index.asp#

are a good source of lower price items. I'm of the opinion that a lot of products from 'big name' hobby distributors are the same products with different labels & huge mark ups. The Taylorcraft would be a fine flyer on electric & like you say, spend the money later on a bigger 4 stroke when you finish '****ing around'. - John.