I am going to go against the grain here and suggest something a little different. If you haven't looked into any of Parkzone's stuff, you may want to. Alot of people swear by their stuff as being easy on the wallet and on the thumbs when learning to fly. All of their stuff includes the plane, battery, charger and radio and everything comes installed. I have met a couple of people who have the Piper J3 Cub and love it to pieces. I myself, have the Stryker which is an extremely fun flyer although, probably just a little hot for the beginning flyer.

The nice thing about Parkzone's stuff, is that all of their stuff flies pretty well based on my own experiences and others as well. Also, due to the low investment cost ($159 I believe for the Piper Cub), you won't have a huge out of pocket expense just to get started. Also, once you have learned on it, you can pass it on down to your son and not worry to much if he crashes as parts are really cheap for it.

The only downside to Parkzone's stuff (except for the Typhoon), is that they use 27mhz frequencies and their radios and receivers are really not something that you would want to reuse in another aircraft. Also, their radios are one stick configurations with a right hand stick for elevator and rudder (or elevon in the Stryker) and a throttle slider on the left hand side. This was a non-issue to me but some have problems adjusting to two sticks if they are use to one stick radios and vice versa.

Here's a link to Horizon Hobby's Parkzone division http://www.horizonhobby.com/Search/D...tDirection=ASC

Good luck in whatever you decide.