Some quality kits not mentioned, but certainly considered a good third choice would be:
Goldberg Tiger or Super Chipmunk,
Great Planes Rapture or Ultra Sport
Sig Astro Hog or Four Star.

These would be considered a little less extreme than some of the others mentioned, that could be a little too hot for someone of your experience so far.

I have seen all of these fly from kit form and are extremely user friendly.

The Four Star sixty size is laser cut so well that you have to be carefull removing the bulsa sheets from the box. The cut parts tend to fall out, so you would need to tape or mark the pieces as you remove them. I have built a couple of these in less than forty hours from box open to flight line. They are easy to kit bash also. If you want bigger, a ST .90 will pull one with authority and a good set of standard servos does well. It is a large, easy to see and easy to build airplane, compared to a scale kit.

If you don't have allot of building skill yet, this may be a good choice to hone your skills a little more, before diving into scale.

Good luck with this difficult choice, let us know how it goes with you.

Mike Boyd