Hi Dom and welcome to the RC World. Save the money and buy a Spectrum DX7 "HELIVERSION". I currently have about 13 planes on mine. Investing in the BASIC cheap stuff will cost you more in the long run. You will quickly find yourself progressing and want to take advantage of the "mixing" capabilities of the better radios. As far as those that claim expo and mixing is cheating.... I fly to have fun. Looking good while making a coordinated turn, snap rolls, emilmens, barrel roles, and tail slides are best accomplished with the appropriate mixes for a given plane. Also; Horizon Hobby tech support is great when you are just learning radio setup. Horizon makes some great micro planes and Helis that you will probably love to fly indoors during the winter and work only with the "Spectrum" stuff. The airplane and heli versions cost the same. However, the heli provides a few extra tricks that can also be used on planes. If later you get interested in helis, you will all ready be setup at no additional expense.
I own both Great planes and Phoenix simulators. Go with the Phoenix. The phoenix uses the DX7 with advantage of allowing you sim time with the exact setup you will be flying with in the field; e.g. expo, dualrates, and mixes.
Check out Ebay. I bought two DX7's dirt cheap.
Good luck and beware of the trees!