I went through a lot of SPADs, including the Debonair, while learning to fly. I have NEVER seen ANY balsa plane cartwheel down the runway as many times as those SPADs and fly again. If you insist on not going to a club, you can build 10 SPADs for the cost of one balsa trainer. Very, very few people are able to teach themselves to fly successfully. Even at a club and with instructors, most people take at least 2 or 3 planes to be able to solo on a regular basis without crashing. If you spend all your money on one plane, and crash on the first flight, what next? Experienced flyers have seen it too many times, that's why the warnings are given. I taught one guy how to build a Debonair, and did 2 or 3 flights on the buddy box with him. He then took it out to fly by himself, and would fly it into the bushes to land because he couldn't land it on the regular runway. He would gas it up and go again.

The AirCore and Armadillo are similar to some SPAD designs.