The Futaba 6EXA is a good radio but how much use will it be for you at this stage?? Have you checked as to which brand of buddy box the local flying club uses?? I like to keep things simple for training and I don't think a basic 4 channel would be a waste. You can keep it as a backup or use it as a buddy box to train your friends on. A 6 channel computer radio can complicate things. Bump the wrong switch at the wrong time and suddenly you can't control the plane! Another problem for example is new flyers want to set up dual rates right away and they usually like to have the high rate set higher than recomended and the low rate lower than recomended. Buddy boxes don't do dual rates!! It likes to keep things simple too, so it only uses the high rate setting of the main radio. If the instuctor switches back control to himself, he can use low rate but you being on the buddy box will only have high rate available! If that rate is set too high, it may be impossible for you to control the airplane. As far as model memory goes, you can easily get by without it. Just set up all your planes so that the servos all move in the same direction for the same function. Then adjust the trims by mechanically adjusting for good flight with the trims at centre. Then you can grab any plane, centre the tabs and go fly! So you really don't need a computer radio right now if you want to save some money! Computer radios are getting more features and cheaper all the time so you wouldn't be losing anything by waiting and maybe get a computer radio next year after you have moved past your trainer. I still have my Futaba Skysport 4 that I use if I want to take out 2 radios on different frequencys. That way at least 1 channel will be free for me to use to fly.