I disagree with all of the above responders and I suggest you follow your original idea to try the Hobbyzone Super Cub RTF. This particular electric airplane package was designed up for beginning pilots to use to teach themselves how to fly. It's an excellent value, and many new RC pilots have reported great success when learning to use the Super Cub RTF from Hobbyzone.
hi , you better start with airhogs plane or skyforce by tyco and its pretty cool and you can modified these's little thing !!
Inexpensive toy-quality RC planes can be entertaining to play with, but they won't teach you the advanced flying skills required for larger "full-house" aircraft. You can spend a lot more than $200 on these and still not progress as a pilot.
you can get the electristar for $199 and thats a much better trainer for the money
The Electristar is indeed a high quality training package and an outstanding value at the current "fire sale" price of $199.99. This price does not include the two batteries or battery charger that you'd need to actually fly the plane, however, and you'd need to spend at least $75 to $100 more to get the plane airborne.
If you want 3 channels, you can get the Flyzone Skyfly, I have one, fun plane.
The Skyfly wouldn't be a terrible choice for a first plane, but the Super Cub RTF is generally regarded as higher quality, more powerful, and easier to learn with. I have neither owned nor flown either plane, and am only commenting on what I've read here in the RCU Beginner's forum.
Honestly, I'd just get a simulator before I go out and crash a plane. I have realflight g3.5 and it has helped me tremendously. I don't even have a plane or heli yet, but plan on getting one soon if I don't start racing again. A sim is about the best investment you can make when getting into rc airplanes; it has saved me hundreds!
I have Real Flight G3.5 myself, and I find it a useful tool for practicing my flying. Flying the simulator alone, however, won't teach you how to setup, charge, and operate your airplane in real-world conditions, however. You will need actual stick time on a real RC airplane, although a simulator could certainly help you learn faster. Buy the plane, and if you can afford a simulator too, then that is terrific.
You don't need a $200 simulator, though. The Clearview RC flight simulator has excellent slow flight modelling characterisitics, is free to download the demo, and only $39.95 to register for the full version
http://rcflightsim.com/index.html. The FMS simulator is a free download and can help a budding new pilot with control orientation
http://n.ethz.ch/student/mmoeller/fms/index_e.html
Get out and fly, and save a few bucks for spare wings, propellers, and tail sections. Good luck and good shopping!