My daughter started flying late July of last year at the age of 9 on a Hobbico Avistar 40.

She had buddy boxed the basics, taken off, stunted, and was practicing "slow-n-low" by the end of the season in anticipation of landing. Her instructor states she'll be soloing this year in about a months time.

The plane is pretty forgiving and quite capable of basic aerobatics. In fact, it may be a bit too fast & maneuverable for some. She didn't seem to have too much trouble though...

We bought an ARF version and found several improvements that needed to be made over the prescribed assembly after the first 5 or 6 flights. Namely epoxying the wing halves together, and the horizontal and vertical stabilizer.

Summary: Good plane, good trainer, comprised of very nice name brand parts. Right now the complete ARF (plane, motor, transmitter, receiver, batteries, etc.) is street priced at about $299.00 that's a pretty good bargain these days.