I don't think I'd recommend the Uproar as a "second" plane, just my opinion. But to answer your question, "how can you ever know what's a good 2nd plane and what isn't?", I'd have to say you have to do some soul searching of yourself and decide what you are up to do. I was worried about going from a SIG Kadet Senior to an Avistar. The transition went fine. You also have to decide just how much you are willing to tackle a full build like a kit. Some are easier than others. The Sig kits like the 4 stars are winners, because how good SIG supplies their kits with really good info on the build. One thing I've noticed, building a kit is going to require more work and ultimately more money. Taking on an ARF, you will save money. So the decisions you have to make are, do want to build from a kit and be willing to invest in time and more money than an ARF? If strictly a kit is what you want, what do you want to build? You have plenty of choices and many good ones have been described earlier.