At our field we have yet to lose a trainer since starting to use a buddy box. Once off the buddy box (which is up to the individual pilot to decide when they are comfortable) we do see a few mishaps but they are typically fixable and the pilot is back out flying again in the next few days.

Don't mislead the beginners following this thread into thinking that just because a plane is made of balsa it will be completely destroyed the first second it meets the ground in an incorrect manner. Often it is just the case of re-gluing a firewall and bending the landing gear back into shape. We have more than one pilot at our field who have planted their balsa trainers more than a couple of times and just keep patching them up and coming back for more while there are others that haven't crashed or crashed bad enough to cause any significant damage - some people simply learn faster than others.

Would they be back in the air faster if they were flying a SPAD? Probably yes... But you still have to take into account what direction the individual wants to go in once they have learned to fly. SPAD building uses techniques that are very different from building a balsa plane so unless they want to stick with SPADs at least for a while they may be missing some good building experience that can help them later on if they want to have a plane that looks more realistic.

Another thing to consider is most manufacturers sell the individual parts for their balsa trainers (kits as well as ARFs) so if you do, for instance, manage to completely destroy the fuselage and the wing is easily fixable, you can get a new fuselage and be back flying without having to shell out the cost of a completely new plane.

Personally, I think either route is perfectly fine. We should really be asking questions about what type of flying the individual wants to get into before suggesting a route to take.

So with that said... reapr is there an interest you have at this point that you would like to pursue? Do you simply want to learn to fly and enjoy it as something fun to do without much caring for the !QUOT!building!QUOT! side of the hobby? Or does looking at a scale plane at the field really grab your attention and make you want to learn more?

Give us some more insight into where you think you would like to go and you will likely get some better answers from the vast pool of knowledge available to you here.