It's hard to make a recommendation for a specific person and plane without seeing the person's ability firsthand, but my son went from an Avistar (his first plane) to the AW Edge. He had about 100 flights on the Avistar before making the switch. He also had a few flights (excluding landings) on my 33% Extra before getting the Edge. He has only about 15 flights on the Edge, but it seems to be stable and hasn't displayed any bad habits. He brought it in really slow on one landing just to see how it would handle, and it just grooved in, not giving any indication that it was on the verge of tip-stalling.

I know the AW Web page says .46 - .61 for engine size, but I suggest not going smaller than a .75 two-stroke. My son's plane has an OS .75AX. IMHO, I don't think the aerobatic performance would be very good with something smaller. If you're set on using a .46 size, I would get a different plane.

The AW support forum has a few different threads on the plane that you might want to read through if you haven't already. If you get this plane, definitely read through the threads, paying special attention to the comments about CG. Most people moved it back considerably from what's listed in the manual. In order to get the CG in the 3.25" range, you'll most likely need to mount the battery behind the cockpit. That's not difficult though; we just made a little platform.

If you go with this plane, remember that it is designed to react very quickly to stick inputs. It's stable, but very responsive. Not trying to scare you off ... just be sure to take it easy until you get used to the increased responsiveness. [8D]

Overall, the plane is of good quality. I would buy my son another one if the one he has bites the dirt.

Dan