Don't you feel this talk about complication is a little bit over the top? Get real. A radio with some buttons on it that sometimes beeps is a lot less intimidating for most people than say... a small, tempermental engine. Or the basics of flight.

Does it confound and confuse the learning process? No. There's nothing inherently more to do while flying with a computer radio than a basic radio. You've still got two sticks, and they still move the same way. Do your fingers mindlessly wander and flick switches of their own free will? Mine sure don't.

Comparing this to other purchase decisions is good, but Minnflyer has choosen an inappropriate comparison. A computer radio is not the equivalent of a 20-pound scale P-51. It's much more akin to choosing a high-quality trainer over a rock-bottom rock. Do you freely recommend something "nice" like an LT-40 over a shelf-paper special? Or a 46fx over a 46la? Both of those choices are more expensive, and the alternatives will teach the basics just as well.

Unless you can't use simple devices, a computer radio won't cause you any undue frustration. If you've got the money, and got the desire for it, buy it. Nothing bad will happen. You won't get turned around and forget where you live. Physics will remain the same, and the plane will still fly.

There's only one situation in which a computer radio can cause definate frustration. That's when the only instructor is one of those folks that scorn a computer radio (for whatever reason; fear, intimidation, lack of understanding). He'll happily sit there and adjust pots with a little screwdriver, but won't help his student reverse a servo because he can't find the DIP switch.

The only real, tangible advantage to a basic radio is price. Everything else given here is FUD.