As a long time instructor and Head instructor for our club, I can tell you that having a good instructor is worth more than 20 foam airplanes! but if you must the three biggest issues a new flyer encounters is over-controlling the aircraft, reversal of controls when flying at you and stalling when trying to land.
First hurtle is solved by disconnecting one of the connections to the motor to disable it, placing the plane on the ground in front of you and imagining the plane in the air as you work the controls and watch the movement of the flying surfaces. First make sure the surfaces move in the proper direction. when you push the right stick to the right the right aileron should move up and the left down. Then left and the left aileron moves up and the left down. When you pull back on the right stick the elevator should move up (this is providing you are dealing with a mode one transmitter). then the left stick moved to the right should move the rudder to the right. Now practice moving the controls smoothly and in small increments. Again imagine how the plane will move in the air.
Next is reversal, to deal with this the best beginner practice is to repeat to yourself the direction you are moving the stick at all times. You will be concentrating on the right stick for the most part at first and only lateral control is important to remember=, so you should repeat right, right, right, left left, etc. This practice will set in to the mind your maneuvers and help to keep the confusion to a minimum.
Third item is stalling on landing. Stalling can happen at anytime and any speed, but is most prevalent and disastrous during landing. Let me say first that in our training program after the student becomes proficient in basic flight at altitude (flying and holding a pattern in both directions and climbing and descending turns) we teach approaches and then landings. I feel it is important to teach landing early on as it develops the fine control stick controls needed in all advanced aspects of flight and if you teach take-offs first you may have a student try on his own if he can not hook up with you. Now to reduce the risk of stalling fly the pattern so you end up turning into the wind as you approach the runway. Keep a good altitude but cut back power and start a decent. You want to end up a good 25-35 feet in altitude as you fly straight down the runway. Concentrate on keeping the nose slightly down during your approach then as you pass the threshold of the runway you want to level off and apply a bit of power (just enough to stay in level flight). Work on keeping the flight past you level and at a constant speed. If the controls feel soft and mushy add a little more power, fly for at least 1/2 the runway and then power up evenly keep flying straight for a few seconds to gain speed and then turn and climb to go around. Keep practicing this until you can hold a straight, level constant speed at the same altitude for that 1/2 of the runway. Once you are comfortable with this lower your altitude by 5-10 feet and do it a few more times then drop a few more feet. Before you know you will be landing.

These lessons are suggested to be done with an instructor and preferably on a buddy box, but at least try them on the simulator first.

As far as planes are concerned it seems to be a standard that new flyers will gravitate to scale, high performance planes for a first purchase. I agree with jester_s1 on the super cub, but a plane like the e-flight Apprentice or Alpha 450 will have better ground handling, though they are balsa and lite-ply so will not be as rugged. The Hobbyzone champ can be a great trainer for indoor or calm day park use as it is stable and easy to fly, but it is only 3 channel (throttle, elevator, and rudder) so learning stick control with it and then going to a full 4 channel model can be confusing. On the other hand it teaches rudder from the start (something many seasoned pilots have never learned). You can also bind it to a DX6i DX7 or JR DSM compatible radio and mix the rudder and aileron channels at 100% so both stick movements can be used. This is where an experienced modeler comes in handy!

If anyone has any questions just PM me, I will help!
Doug R