RE: WHAT IS THE MINIMUM WING SPAN FOR BEGINNER HIGH WING TRAINER?
I'll go against the grain and say that perhaps the best single first trainer out there is the Hobby Zone Champ micro plane! Why? There is one thing a beginner needs more than anything else, assuming they have a bulletproof trainer like the Hobby Zone Super Cub and a short list of others. What the beginner needs is max stick time!
That means you need to be able to fly the plane whenever the opportunity arises. With a larger plane that means packing up, a trip to the local flying field, unpack, fly, pack back up, drive home. With a micro Champ you open the front door, turn on the transmitter, insert a battery in the plane, check the control surface movements, chuck the thing into the air and fly the heck out of it.
Yes you have limitations on wind velocity, but most mornings and evenings will work just fine. But your flying will be close to you in small areas. The Champ is very crashworthy when flown over grass. I think this micro forces us to rethink learning to fly and for $89.00 complete with transmitter, it just demolishes the $200 limit there for a really extraordinary learning plane.
The Hobby Zone Champ micro deserves consideration whenever first airplanes are discussed.