I have to say I'm a keen flyer, it's great fun. A couple of my mates got into the hobby with the Hobbyzone Cub. It's foam.... so can be glued back together easily. They fly well and have reasonable duration. They can fly quite happily in winds up to 8mph. They are tough too, one of my mates managed to "land" his in the top of a tree. About 30 mins of kicking footballs at it and poking it with sticks, it came down and lived to fly another day.
For anyone new to flight, it has to be high wing.... much more stable. Therefore I would ignore warbirds etc. So the cub ticks the box on being high wing anyway. The big downside I think of the Cub is it's only elevator and rudder, no aileron. Personally I find when flying that I rarely use the rudder, and only use aileron. It's easier in my opinion. Many people have different tastes though, so Vicky might actually prefer rudder for control. The problem is, she'd only know once she's flown both. So that really doesn't help!
Also the cub only comes with a three channel transmitter, so not great for any future prospects. Minus those two points, it's great. And, to be fair everything has its downsides. The Hobbyzone is very good despite these points.
Other stuff I have found, one of my favourite online plane shops has this:
http://robotbirds.com/catalog/produc...oducts_id=1433
Has aileron and rudder control, 4 channel radio etc. I've never had any personal experience with one though, has a 5 star review score on the site though.
And well there are loads of planes on Sussex Models (
http://www.sussex-model-centre.co.uk - check out electric, then RTF with radio). They are a massive, massive shop for plane stuff. Seriously more planes then you could point a very large stick at.
They do the same cub, and it's on special off at the moment:
http://www.sussex-model-centre.co.uk...d.asp?id=20561
I noticed this one (another cub) comes with LiPo and Brushless, + free sim cheap too:
http://www.sussex-model-centre.co.uk...d.asp?id=25109
Yet another cub, Thunder Tiger:
http://www.sussex-model-centre.co.uk...xd.asp?id=5156
Basically they have loads. Best bet with Sussex is to phone them. They have always given me honest, really good advice and sometimes manage to save some money on the way. Cheap and fast postage too.