I still have one new in the box. I would say there as good as you will get for a trainer and that's not saying much. Any of the small 049 planes fly fast and it takes time and many crashes to learn to fly. What is good about those small planes are mostly the wings will come off in a crash and all you normally have to do is rubber band them back on. I learned on a plane similar to that Cox trainer and still have it but when I decided to build a larger plane, a 35 size Wingmaster, I found the larger plane much easier to fly but the one draw back is if you crash that plane, you have some work to do before it will fly again. If possible try to take off on a hard surface and back up to a grass field so when it does go in, it won't do serious damage to the plane.
Larry