My first Electric was a Zagi flying wing. Extremely durable and fun. Especially fun if you have other zagi's flying with you. Zagi's require two micro servos, a receiver and radio capable of being used on delta wings. For power they can be flown with brushed or brushless motors. I started with a speed 400 version with a 20 Amp brushed speed control. I made my own 8 cell Nickel Metal Hydride packs to keep my costs down. The speed 400 motor is cheap ~$10.00 but they do get worn out rather rapidly.
I switched to a brushless motor and speed control after about a year. A good choice is a Mega 16-15-5. This is much more fun and much faster. Switching to LiPo batteries also adds greatly to the performance. The only drawback to the zagi was limited aerobatics.

The next step I took was to go to a profile foamy. I happened to be in Billings for work a couple years ago and saw Clay from Abel R/C flying one of their Adrenaline Profile planes. He let me try it out and I was impressed. I got one that Christmas and man was I happy. It is powered by an AXI 2212-26 brushless motor and I use a Phoenix 25 A speed control with 1350mAh batteries. It's a foamy designed for outdoors. It can handle fairly stiff breezes and is very well built. Visit http://www.abellrc.com to see what they offer. Mine didn't have landing gear but I see this is an option now. I might have to buy a set and try out.

Hope this helps.