Hey tomcatguy,
I just realized we live in the same city. I actually belong to the Hernando aeromodelers club and we fly out of a field off of 98. I am a fairly new member also, just joined in april. There are alot of talented guys there, in fact it was a club member who went over my stuff and got the plane up for me. If you need a RC friend around here shoot me an email. Oh and i'm considered the young one at the club (i'm 34).

Let me just say as a person who started off with electrics. There is something very macho, manly almost like that feeling you get from grilling beef; that you get from flying nitro engines. Honestly, the smell is great and who doesn't like to tinker with engines. Plus cleaning the plane after flying is nice and relaxing. I love the noise and the smoke, it's really exciting. Electrics are great too, my heli is and is clean and starts right up too.