Hi Nu, first off the plane is a good trainer. Its made from a combination of balsa for most of the plane and plywood for areas that require more strength such as the firewall where the engine mounts to. The engine type is actually referred to as glow or glow fuel powered, not gas. There are larger radio controlled planes that do use a gasoline powered engine but you won't want to be looking into these right now. The easiest and least expensive way to learn how to fly is to join a club and learn with an instructor. RC clubs have instructors that are happy to teach you at no cost when you join the club. I would suggest a 4 channel plane to start with. This gives you more plane choices and you won't need to retrain yourself by going to a 4th channel later. As far as the flight stabilizer gizmo, it can teach bad habits such as, when something goes wrong, let go of the sticks and let the "gizmo" try to fix it! If you have an instructor teaching you with a buddy box, crashes with a trainer are rare. Before you buy anything, phone your local hobby shop that sells planes and ask them for phone numbers of nearby RC clubs. Get in touch with them and see if you can go visit the club. The club may have buddy boxes at the club house. Theres no point in buying an Airtronics radio if the club only has Futaba buddy boxes. If they have both, then see which one feels best in your hand. Hope this all helps, Fast![8D]