This is my first post here. I thought I'd read up on some beginer advice considering I am just that myself. I've been into RC cars for about 20 years now and decided I wanted to try flying. My first plane is the Parkzone J3 cub. Its cheap, comes with everything you need, sets up in like 5 minutes, and for an extra $20 you can pick up a spare battery. With absolutely no experience flying or assistance from anyone I hand launched for my first flight, had no mishaps, and even made a great attempt at the first landing. I was flying over a farmers field and just couldn't line it up with the road, so I tried to land softly on the edge of the field. It went fine, but the grass / weeds were too tall for the plane to roll through and it tipped up onto its nose. No damage to speak of cause I set it down slow and light. I now have something like 15 flights or more under my belt. On only my 4th flight I was able to do a loop. After about the 6th flight I can set it down nicely in the street. In my opinion, for what its worth, the Parkzone J3 cub is an excellent first plane for anyone who has had a transmitter in their hands before, like car/truck experience. Just don't panic and yoke on the stick and the cub will almost fly itself. I have even flown it with a pretty decent wind, however that will definately make your blood pressure go up a notch. If you can't tell, I'm totally thrilled with making that plane my first. I'm not patient and wanted to go it alone on the learning process. I do plan on stepping up to a gas plane which I already got a great deal on a used trainer. I plan on logging much more flying time with the cub before burning some nitro, but I believe the experience I'm getting with the cub will go a long way when I fire up for my first nitro flight. So anyways I guess I'm saying that you can't go wrong by checking out the Parkzone Cub as a first plane.