The UM T-28 is a pretty good first plane too, had it not been for having too many fences at my house, it would still have a fully intact tail and wing, but nothing some packing tape didn't fix!
One thing though, on the T-28, check the trim settings very closely, and check that the stickers aren't touching the pushrods. On mine the ailerons were off, causing it to roll left immediately from launch, something that was hard to check, and it had way too much up elevator. The first flight was crazy, had a slight breeze, and the roll and elevator had the sucker looping and spinning like crazy, Scary and fun all at the same time. My second flight went much better after I had trimmed it out, and had a decent breezeless morning. I would up clipping the electric fence a couple times with it though, but with some practice I wont be doing that anymore.
So I recommend the T-28 as a first plane, it is stable, can take a slight breeze and can get smacked around a bit, just carry a roll of packing tape for quick field repairs.