ok, well i was in your position about a year ago. my uncle who is HUGE into this hobby got me the orange Challenger. Since it is your first real R/C plane, its going to be a little hard at first. The Challenger takes a beating, as in, i slammed it into the concrete and its perfectly fine. The three main things any beginner should remember is, stay focused at all times, DO NOT use your big quick xbox reflexes on an r/c plane and last, make sure you have plenty of room with no wind. i hope this helped