I started RC decades after most of you.  It wasn't until I was in the US on a sabbatical leave in 2003-2004 that I realized that RC gear had fallen to financially feasible levels.  My first set was Airtronics, which included the Tx, the Rx, 4 servos, a switch, and a battery pack...all for $125 on sale. 

Just after buying the RC package I ordered a 40-size "eindecker" from BUSA.  I was completely naive and under the impression that it would be a true scale model of the EIII.  Just one look at the plans showed how wrong I was, so almost immediately I set about doing major modifications (i.e. putting lipstick on a pig).  I essentially built a completely new fuselage with full-flying rudder and elevator with scale outlines.  Then there was the fully-sprung (in a scale manner with the bungees at the top) UC.  I somehow managed to do this without any soldering, which at the time I didn't know how to do.  I didn't have the skill or the know how to build a scale wing-warping wing.  So I used the fat BUSA wing, but cut in half and mounted on tubes.

I still didn't know how to fly RC.  While building, I got a high-wing trainer ARF...and immediately converted it to a tail-dragger configuration.  I was taught how to fly on this ARF...at a near desert field in Corona, California.  I finished the EIII just a couple of weeks before I had to return to Japan and there seemed to be no point in bringing it back with me because I was unaware of any RC fields or clubs "back home."

Here's my younger son with my EIII at the field in Corona.  Both of my sons made it to the solo-stage with the ARF, but didn't have an interest in continuing.  A couple of weeks later it got hung on the ceiling of my sons' room and I headed back to Japan.  Over 10 years later it was removed from the ceiling, shipped to Japan, and resurrected for a couple more flights.

The club president did the first few flights, while I snapped photos.

Then just for fun, I had my two sons hold the wings of the model for this "flying" glamour shot (with a little help from Photoshop for the firing gun and the rotating rotary...and the sun for the Hun).

My 1/28 Fokker Dr1 sitting in a full scale seat. Bucker Jungman in the background I helped restore. I was well along on a full scale Dr1 in the 90's. Note the bargin surplus aluminum sheet in the background too! $15  for an 8 x 8' sheet!

I didn't think too much about it at the time, but this has got to be the worst possible environment for an engine.  Sadly, there are no grass fields in SoCal.  All the other fields I've visited have a tarmac strip...often with significant cracks.

Doc