Of the two you mentioned I vote for the EF Yak with a YS 110 Sport not the DZ. If you want to spend a bit more and go gas the GP Wagstaff is an excellent choice. Solid in the air and look at the huge threads and you'll see that it is a quality plane at $399. I have had two, flown a little competition and it is perfect for Basic. What's way more important than the plane is that you practice ALOT. Find someone who competes at a higher level and have them coach you and enter every contest you can, you'll improve tremendously from the experiance.