I think I know the answer to this but I'll get an opinion. (I have intermediate experience with .60 nitro planes.) My father-in-law is interested in getting into small electric Park flyers. He has no experience. He was looking to get a Park Zone Focke Wulf 190. Now I know in .40 planes and up you need to go trainer way before warbirds, but since these planes aren't as fast and heavy can you just get one and fly? I'm assuming no. Do these things crash hard or are they forgiving? The price is right but how's the quality? I might have to step in a be his intsructor if he insists, but there's no buddy boxing with these right? Any help or advice would be great!

Park Flyers will break when they crash, forgiving to a certain extent but then if its a newbie nosing it in then it will break. Why not get your F-I-L a nicer park flyer like the Multplex Easy Star or GWS Beaver/E Starter? He will have more time enjoying it than spending time patching up the plane. Both planes are totally easy to fly. Not a warbird like plane but less heartache.

The Parkzone FW-190 is a good, high quality plane that flies well. It is too fast for a new pilot to start with, however. tIANci's suggestions of starting him off with a Multiplex Easy Star or GWS E-Starter are good ones. Another good starter plane is the Parkzone Slo-V. The Slo-V is a terrific slow-flying aircraft that is ready-to-fly out of the box. A beginning pilot can keep up with it, and it can even be flown indoors in a gymnasium when the weather won't let you fly outside.

Once your father-in-law has gotten comfortable flying around the Slo-V or Easy Star, moving up to a Parkzone warbird like the Mustang, Spitfire, or FW-190 won't be such a challenging step up.