The best thing to start with is a model airplane that is designed to crash and can be repaired easily. If you have never used an R/C aircraft before, you might want to start cheaply and decide how far you want to go. During your early days with R/C work, you had better plan on cracking the plane up a few times before you get the hang of it. That being said, don't spend too much on the first plane. I went right into fairly sophisticated models and cracked up a couple of $200 to $400 airplanes on their first flights. That can be rather discouraging. I saw a kit for about $50 for a rechargable model airplane that used rubber bands to hold the wings in place, came with a couple of spare propellers, and had very heavy duty springs on the fixed landing gear. I gave it to my son and let him play with it. He flew it into the ground on the first flight (but he did fly it for about a minute before he lost control and I watched the plane auger in). It was an impressive crash, with parts flying everywhere and the engine even flew off the plane. I quickly realized that some of the rubber bands were broken, but most of them had just popped off, as the plane is designed to break up when it crashes. It took less than five minutes to put it all back together and he was flying again. I learned pretty quickly to carry extra rubber bands, and I bought a second and third battery pack, as the battery is only good for about five minutes of flight time before it ran out of juice. The recharge time was about four hours, so he lost patience waiting for the battery to charge back up. He got to the point where he could control the plane fairly well before I let him switch to a fueled R/C airplane (.049 engine) and he handled it fairly well. I did have to fix a strut on the landing gear, but he still hasn't cracked up one of these more expensive models. I have ruined four, three of them in the first few months that I was trying to get into R/C work. So, he was able to learn quickly and he hasn't hit that problem of worrying about the cost of the hobby, since he learned on a $50 kit, while I probably spent $700 to $1000 trying to figure out how to fly the silly things.

For a first time flyer, I highly recommend the Parkzone or Hobby Zone line of products. The Hobby Zone Super Cub is a very easy plane to start with and comes with everything you need for about 150.00. Parts are available and they're easy to fix when you crash.

Find someone in the hobby to take you out and try their plane first. They will give you a good amount of info on equipment too. If that is not a possibility I would get an ARF(almost ready to fly) trainer-style plane. Get something basic and cheap.

The first thing to decide is if you plan to just fly or if you want to build. Building RC planes can be a hobby unto itself especially in the off season if you live where climate is an issue. This answer assumes you want to build RC planes too. If you intend to build, check out a DuraPlane Trainer. Built to crash and still cheap to fix and crash again. One advantage here is that unlike the cheap all-in-one park flyers you'll be able to reuse the radio and servos in your next plane.

Listen to Permalink he has got the right idea I would most definetly get a high wing plane this improves stability. Also get a ready to fly. Cause building takes forever to do . unless you enjoy that kind of thing. Remember you get what you pay for ! !

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