Welcome to RCU forums, Steve!

Here you can find RC model airplane clubs in your area:

http://www.modelaircraft.org/clubsearch.aspx

Those RC pilots will advise about what equipemnt to buy that matches what they have for trainning.

Think of a flight simulator for beginner and advance practice:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_138/tt.htm

Also, read through old and new posts in the Beginners forum.

We also have the Scale, Golden Age and Full Size forums:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_169/tt.htm

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_255/tt.htm

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_196/tt.htm