G'day Kendall.
As an intructor I can tell you that a buddy box setup is THE best way to save your plane, espectially when learning to take off & land.
All it is, is another radio, connected to yours, you hold the slave TX, & the instructor holds the master(your TX), when the instructor holds a button down, or a switch, whatever, you have control of the plane, & if you get into trouble, he releases the button, & can save your plane,
All this happens in a split second, whereas getting a TX back from a student, can take seconds, & sometimes, too long to save the plane. It is up to the instructor to decide when to take over, of course.
As was stated by RCKen, make sure that the instructor at the club has JR, which is what I have, or a radio that is JR compatable, like a Spektrum, & then buy whatever you find is the right one.
And you may find that because, Modelflight is in Adelaide, there will be a lot of JR radio's there anyway.