Balr14

I've been flying now for 4 months and gone through 12 planes and about $3000 after starting with an Aero Ace. I'm still looking for something that can fly nearly that slow, but can do all sorts of cool stuff. I'm nearly there. Here's my observations, so far:

Firebird Phantom, Aerobird, Red Hawk, (all of the pod and boom planes) require lots of room and lots of speed and are hard to hand launch. If you can deal with these requirements, they fly very well and are very forgiving. I've owned and wrecked most of them. I really didn't like any of them, so I didn't bother repairing them. I don't want to have to fly that fast all of the time.

The Slow Stick, Pico SS and Slo-V are all much slower planes that require much less space. I have the Pico SS and Slow V (I prefer ailerons to rudder for turning, so I like the Slow V elevons). The one thing about these slow flyers is they are basically way underpowered. Upgrade to lipo and brushless makes an incredible difference in how they fly without making them faster. I would not recommend any of these as a backyard flyer unless you have a really really big backyard.

The Parkzone Cessna 210 is an incredible flyer if it's dead calm. It's a little faster than you'd think, but you can pretty much fly it anywhere if you are good. It's too fast to fly indoors (I've tried), but I've flown it under and around trees in my yard. It takes a lot of abuse and is easy to repair. Highly recommended.

My quest for a decent backyard flyer has lead to my latest purchases, the HyperFlea and Typhoon 2. I love them both. I don't have the skill yet to do everything either of them is capable of, nor can I handle them at the speeds they could run. But they both hand lauch with ease, and will do anything I want them to do at partial throttle. They are also very tough, especially the Hyperflea. They aren't conventional beginner planes, but I prefer them to the ones that are supposed to be for beginners.

When I want to expand my skills, or try flying in my yard, I fly the Hyperflea. I'm going to crash (a lot) but the thing is damn near invulnerable.

When I think I've got some new skill pretty well mastered, I switch to the Typhoon2. It helps expand and refine my skills. It can handle crashes, but not like the Hyperflea.

I fly the Pico SS when I'm in a strange area and there's a risk of significant damage or plane loss (up a tall tree, on top of a building, etc.).

I fly the Slow V in the open field across the street when I feel like relaxing. I have two boys who like to fly the slow stuff, too. They have even less experience than I do.

One last word to other beginners. Real Flight 3.5 seems like an awful lot to spend ($200) for something you weren't planning on buying. BUY IT ANYWAY! It will save you many hours of frustration and lots of money. I've crashed the Typhoon 1000 times and it didn't cost me a cent or a lost second. I can hover it in RF3.5, haven't tried yet for real.