I had a slow stick for a while and while it was fun to tool around the city park at walking pace, it was not nearly as easy to fly as my trainer was at the club field. Any wind at all tossed it around a lot and it couldn't take much abuse. I was apprehensive about getting a balsa plane too when I first started because of all the comments about one mishap turning them into toothpicks. It's not true. The vast majority of wrecks are not totals and can be fixed. It is much more involved to fix a balsa model than a foamy, but the balsa model will also survive abuse that would break a foamy. The upshot is that a good balsa trainer like the Sigs are very predictable and stable flyers, even in moderate winds. That gives you more flying days and much better chances at getting over the initial learning curve before getting discouraged.