Futaba 9CAP all the way. Its by far the best transmitter on the market for the money. And it will fly about 16-18 different planes, I cant remember because I only have 5 planes in mine right now. I fly with guys who have the RD6000 and the JR 8103s and they will even commit that the user friendliness of the 9C is unprecedented as will the guys I fly with who have 9ZWC2's which are about $1000. Its a really intuitive little transmitter, which means that Futaba put a lot of thought into building a programming scheme that makes sense. Once you understand what subtrims, dual rates and endpoints are you have it licked, and that is a piece of cake. It also has about 10 mix options that are real easy to setup.
You can get one for <$300 without and sometimes with servos. It will do everything that you will ever NEED to do. The Futaba 9Z and JR 10X will do some more cutsie things but you dont NEED what they do, period. You will use the 9 channels for sure when you start using flaperons and twin elevator servos. Dont let guys tell you you dont need 9 channels, you do...... unless the only thing you fly are trainers, spads and cubs. Anything beyond that with seperate aileron and elevator servos you will use them, especially if you intend to get into pattern or 3D, for the extra $50 you are getting 3x's anything anyone else has to offer.

Just my opinion.

PS. You can PM me or shoot me an email anytime if you have any programming questions after you get it, they are just too easy to program once you understand some very basic terminology.