I started on an Aerobird. Today you would get an Aerobird Challenger.

Ready to fly! Nothing to build, balance or set-up! Nothing to do wrong in building,
balancing and setting up! $110 on e-bay ready to fly! $150 at your local hobby store.

No you can't move the electronics stuff to other planes, but who cares? I
have 6 planes, soon to be 7, and I sill fly my Aerobird so I wouldn't want to
move the equipment anyway. Plus this is the plane I let friends fly to try
out RC flying.

Low cost entry on a very rugged three channel plane that flies well. If you
like RC flying, then you can invest in more costly equipment and then go for
the 4 channel plane. If you don't like it, you only dropped $150.

Of course if you like it, you can go back and get the air to air combat module
and the bomb/parachute drop module for the Aerobird Challenger Then get a
friend to get one and have a ball with air to air combat, precison bombing
runs and parachute drops.

Prepare for the purists to groan at this, but it really is hard to beat it for
a low cost entry plane that can really take a beating!