Shipping-
Happened to me once as well- might be for "new customers" to hook them? We will never know
Instructions-
That's what you get when ordering in China/Hong Kong.
They do have a link on their shop page, else it's the same as the t6a mentioned on rcgroups or hobbyking.
Bind Plug-
If it is the 2.4 GHz version you should request they send you the Bind Plug. You will need it to pair reciever and transmitter. While it was common to use crystals of the same channel, this works digitally (transmitter ID). Even though it should come pre-bound/bind, it could happen that you need it.
->
http://site.hobbypartz.com/79p/FS-CT6-24G/watermark/FS-CT6-24G-02.jpg
It's just the small "wire loop plug", so you can easily "short" the pins if you really need it, but you should get what you ordered.
- Housing & Weight
Builds allways end up heavier then on paper ;-) You should use position and additional battery to get it right ;-) But if it really does not matter, the housing will offer protection to the rX board. Else a bit of styrofoam/wrapper o shrinking tube will do.
- Software download
See the Hobbyparz description ("Installation tips Link: Click Here
http://www.mycoolheli.com/t6config.html " - Lots of info there too.) or google for t6a, what the radio usualy is called.
If you're lucky, the radio will work out of the box as a "dumb" transmitter. But the advantages of beeing able to program it are to remember for the future. You can change stick movement, expo, mixing (ailerons!) and all that.
-Simulator
The cable is other then the simulator cables, but some tools are available that will translate the readings into USB Joystick gibberish.
->T6sim soft and PPJoy program to get virtual Joystick
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12532419&postcount=1076
-spreadsheet
Good idea
-Charger
With $17+10 shipping is just ~$5-7 more expensive then at ebay, and the charger seems to be mostly identical. Some reviews of the charger are not so good, but I think it will not be worse then the ebay ones?
The only thing to look for, is that you can not charge your Lipos with more then recomended. Usualy, especially for larger packs (unless more expensive newer ones) you can charge with 1 C.
Example: A 140mAh battery can only be charged with up to 140mA, so it takes ~1hr to charge. The $5 chargers only support 700mA+ charge, so you need one with 100mA+, or often written in Ampere 0.1A or .1A.
That is the main thing right now. All these cheap chargers will do, but of course, they are not really good.
My goal is to get people started in the hobby with low cost components. I myself started with a $400 Radio and a $120 charger- and both are just sitting arround collecting dust, as my cheap china radio set
and this charger does a much better job ;-) The charger is more expensive but you'll get $4 worth of points for buying it at Hobbyking.
So that's $23+10sh-4 Bonuspoints =$29 compared to the $27 cheaper charger, or $20 to the ebay one.
All should work just fine.
My experience is that starting with cheap but good entry level components is much better then getting the "pro" stuff right away. You can waste hundreds and even thousands of dollars on radio gear and chargers... But even if, you can just sell the china stuff (usualy at a still decent price) or make a other newbie happy ;-)