packyj

The general consensus for flying height when you're still learning any plane is 3 mistakes high. If you can visualize the speed of the airplane and picture yourself making one mistake, this could be turning the wrong way, accidentally pushing down elevator instead of up, or in the case of an aileron flyer - putting too much control into the plane and turning it upside down. As you can see... three mistakes is pretty high. I'd say that no matter what plane you get take it up at least over 75 feet. Those parkzone and hobby zone craft have at least a 1000 foot range so flying 100 feet up is still easily in range. I as well would not suggest the low wing birds as a first plane.

Good luck hunting, there are a lot of planes out there that are great for beginners. One of the best I've seen is the multiplex easystar. Still looks airplane like and has a great learning curve. A pusher propeller plane has less chance of damaging the goodies on your first few attempts at controlled landings. Also if this seems like a hobby you plan to enjoy for a good while I would suggest the easystar and a stand alone radio system over the ready to fly planes. Mainly because this way you only need to buy one radio instead of having a lot of gear laying around from a lot of crashed up planes that you can't use in anything else.