I have flown the Funtana 40, Phoenix Funstar, Magic, Magic Extra and the TT Spirit 3D. Best of the lot is the TT Spirit 3D if you are talking about a beginner for 3D. She is easy to handle, responsive, very easy to Prop Hang (lousy knife edge if not mixed), very good slow speed handling, does not really have any bad tendencies (unlike the small prob with the F40 dropping a wing), will do an inverted Harrier without any complain.

This plane will give you very strong vertical with a mere TT46 (APC 11x5 prop). Standard servos are enough, I was using Futaba 3003s only.