Elad:

With all this reversed spelling of names, like Elad Somath am I going to have to change mine to Yllib Nosibor? Haw.

Trainer. ARF. Hard to beat the RCM trainer 40 from HobbyPeople. Currently on sale for $120, and the Magnum XLS 40 for $60 more. $180 so far.

At this point we blow the budget. If you get that RTF package you will spend less money, but you will quickly outgrow the included radio. So, as I said, here we blow the budget.

Don't consider anything less than six channel, and make sure channel six is proportional, not just a two or three position switch.

Candidates:
Futaba 6YG. Complete system, plain jane, $150 complete.
Futaba 6EXA. Late design, $30 more, at $180 for digital trims, 6 model memory, a lot of other nice features.
Futaba 6XA. This one, at $230, is the one I recommend. A lot of pre-programmed mixes, and mixes you can program, works on both PPM and PCM, just a good all-round radio. And this set you will not outgrow. At least until you want eight or nine channels, anyway.

So. While your $280 RTF will get you flying, I'm afraid you will regret having gotten the four channel radio. And as I have shown, going to six channels doesn't have to be expensive.

Llib. (Haw.)

EDIT: Lousy math. wr.