I saw a foam Cessna li-po powered "trainer" plane today at the field with 2.4ghz radio that flew pretty well, but only for 5 minutes. For a beginner I guess that's a long time. Hard to look back and remember the feeling on that, I never counting time until months later when my mind was clear enough to think about it. Anyway, I talked to him and he said he paid $149 shipped to his door for it. It's a great option. No learning curve to tuning, no fuel, pumps, glow igniter, clean up, or flight box required. He bought 3 batteries, had three flights and went home happy. Personally I like all the components of the hobby, the tuning is fun to see how you did when it's in the air ( fuel, prop, plug, pipe length combinations.)
I like the smell and sound from glow powered planes too. EP would be boring for me I think. I'm not just a pilot. But to a beginner trying to just keep his plane in one piece and in the air, it's a great start. He stated he flew a Sim at the local hobby shop in town for free.
He did very well. I was thrilled he was on 2.4 too. He got it from an auction seller named hobby mart.