First off, get out to the club, find an Instructor and listen to what he suggests. US Aircore airplanes are made out of what looks like cardboard dipped in heavy wax. The planes are very durable but are not not the best flyers due to the weight. There are other trainers out there that fly better and also have the crash guarantee. The Tower Hobbies trainer 40 comes to mind and I think Hobbico has one as well. With proper instruction, crashes should be very rare but if the plane does need repairs, the balsa airplanes are much easier to glue back together than the cheap foam airplanes.