It's all up to your personal preferences whether you go planes or helis. For example, I started off with a heli that I bought from a friend second-hand, and after crashing and rebuilding it three times, expensively, I went with FT planes and haven't looked back. I much prefer fixed-wing anyway, but again, this is all up to what you want to do. I like planes because they fly by their very nature, like birds, and I really enjoy natural flight. It's hard to shut the motor off and soar with a helicopter.
As was stated above, you can get some really slick simulators free, or for a small expense. The biggest benefit with the sims, IMHO, is that you learn how to control a plane regardless of its orientation - that is, flying away from you, toward you, across in front of you, etc. You also learn what to expect at launch with throttle settings, trimming the controls, etc. Then you can transition directly to a simple FT plane like the Flyer, which is an excellent trainer, and very cheap and easy to build. Basically, sim crashes are free, and FT crashes are cheap.
Then you work your way up from there. I started with an FT Old Fogey and beat it up pretty thoroughly at first - but by golly, it taught me to fly. I still have it. Meaning, learning to fly means crashing. A LOT. So starting off simple and cheap relieves a lot of the stress involved in learning.
Anyway, have a great time with the hobby!
Gryf
