i used to do rockets in high school. they are pretty cheap if you stick to the estes rockets which are available at pretty much all hobby shops and some craft stores. to start you will just need a launch pad with an electric igniter switch ($10-20), choose a rocket or two ($5-??), and the engines for each rocket (4 for $10). if you choose rockets that use the same size engine, you can save some cost. you can launch these in most open spaces. stay away from airports as the rockets can fly pretty high. pretty much everything is re-usable except for the engines. you can also just buy supplies and build your own models from scratch if you want.
if you are interested in bigger rockets, i would suggest contacting the ASU rocket guys. they are usually pretty helpful and they should be able to give you information about launches in AZ. i know they used to go out to rainbow valley (west of phx) to launch with an amateur rocket club. they build really big guys and use home made motors and stuff like that.
as for r/c planes, i got involved with some of this at ASU. this is a much more expensive hobby. an airplane with an engine is probably going to cost you $100. and as you are learning, you will have to pay to fix any thing that breaks during crashes. this probably doesn't include the receiver/transmitter either. the other difficult thing is finding a spot to fly. most r/c runways require you to be a member of their club to use the runway. you can probably start with a smaller electric plane and get away with flying around a park or something. but some of the bigger planes and receiver/transmitters require a special location to fly due to FCC laws. any hobby shop would have the information about clubs and FCC guidelines.
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