Your 40 year old brother? Take this from a 50 year old first year flyer.

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.

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.

A big question is does he have a place to fly it. He will need an area that is like two football fields side by side, or an open area of a bunch of soccor fields. If he has that much space, an Aerobird would be great!

If this is more than you wanted to spend, then get together with some others and chip in. Get it off e-bay and save $40. That is where I got mine.

A $50 plane might be cute, but it will only frustrate him if RC flying is something he really wants to do. Get him a plane he can really fly!