Mark it is a very cool and very addictive Hobby and can get expensive. The most expensive is the dang helis. One lil blade touch and you can be looking at $100 plus in repairs. I got tired of them quickly. I also raced on road cars and off road 2&4 wheel drive buggies and trucks. I was actually sponsored by a manufacturer and hobby shop, that was many years ago
I started building my first RC plane in the Mid 60's, I was 8 yrs old. My Dad was also into the RC planes. I did a lot of extra chores and did some work for neighboring farms and ranches, so I could buy that first kit. Back then the kits were pieces of balsa and some hardwoods. They took months too build. For my 9th bday, I got an engine and a radio kit. Yeah I had to build my first radio. That was great, I started learning about electronics at an early age. My first plane was cub type trainer and it looked pretty good. The fourth time flying it, something happened with the radio signal and it crashed. I was one very unhappy lil man. But I gathered up the bag of pieces. I obviously did not give up. Things have changed a lot over the years. I had lots of planes that were made of special type of foam and they were modular.. Crash them, buy a replacement wing fuselage etc... Also the innovations with Brushless motors and Lithium batteries really changed things. When I first started you would have over a $1,000 tied up quickly. Now with the micro foam electrics you can be flying for around $100 and instead of months of building, you can be flying in a hour, depending on how long it takes you too get the battery charged. Use to have to pay attention to what frequency you were on and make sure no one else was on the same. That has really changed, with the new radios, you can turn on a 100 of them and you will not be messing anyone else up. I still fly the small planes (UMX) you can fly them in your yard and they are very easy to learn on. Some even have gyros for flight stabilization and anti crash. Guess that kid in my heart, has never left me, now it's got the mini and kart addiction ;P