Great title. Knowing that you don't know is 50%.
FDS is spot on. This hobby has a whale of a learning curve. If flight wasn't hard, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.
To fly you need several bits of mandatory kit. You need a radio for transmitting to your plane and a receiver on the plane to receive the signal from your radio. You need lipo batteries that suit your plane for weight and size and can power your motor, servos and receiver. You need a lipo balance charger.
Don't try to put a 200 gallon tank on a 750cc motorcycle or a 3000mAh lipo on a 24" wingspan plane for similar reasons.
Your radio and lipo, balance charger will impact every single model you fly, so choose wisely here. Take LONGER to choose each of these than you take to choose your plane. Radio and charger are very personal decisions. Ask around. Seriously, this will impact every model you fly.
If you have never built/flown/crashed/repaired before, I highly recommend the FT Tiny Trainer speed build kit. It comes with two wings and two noses. The speed build kit will teach you the FT way of using foam board and cut your build learning curve in half. The Tiny Trainer is a docile glider but can be upgraded to a mildly aerobatic plane.
You will crash! Get over that now. Every single one of these ends up in a bag, the electronics scavenged to build a new model.
If your first plane lasts a month, you probably aren't flying.
My first lasted a minute. My second < 30 seconds. This is typical for learning to build and fly.
When you do build, start a build log here on our forums. Take lots of photos as you build so you can refer to them when you need to rebuild and to give us context when you have questions. Film your flight surface testing in such a way that we can see your remote control and your flight controls. This is critical. Nothing blows more than having your elevators reversed so that when you pull back on the stick, your plane nose dives into the ground.. Faceplants happen fast and are brutal. Avoid by testing the directions of your flight controls.
Lastly, when it's time, film the maiden voyage. Nothing blows worse than tanking your plane and not knowing why and not knowing how to learn to do better. If you post video here of your maiden voyage and you crash, we may be able to help diagnose why.
And when she flies true we can all cheer with you!
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