I'm an Electronic Engineer living in Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
Last year I started flying the AirHogs little planes to entretain my then 3 year old son. He would run around catching it, and throwing it back in the air. We used to have great fun. Lately he doesn't care for it that much.
The AirHogs woke up my facination for RC planes. I used to build balsa planes as a teen, but never had the money or availability to put a motor on them. We used rubber bands and that wore off quickly.
I decided to move up to a bigger plane, and bought a AeroBird3. It was nice as a trainer, but the boom (between nose fuse and V tail) is fragile and I spent a lot of time repairing it.
Eventually, on a foggy day, it went into a fog bank and we never found it.
I moved to a ParkZone P-51. My first aileron plane. It is not a beginers plane and has nasty tip-stall maners. You need to throw it like a javelin or it would just crash 6 feet from you. I learned (the hard way, of course) to fly with the 'stang. I still fly it one in a while, but it is just not that agile. (If you need an easy WWII aileron plane, get the ParkZone Spitfire. Parts are available and flies really nice)
I then bought a Corsair (F4U) from raidentech.com. It was really underpower, the CG was off by miles, but eventually got it to fly.
I upgraded the F4U with a brushless combo from hobbycity.com (2408 motor) and 1300 lipo. It became a totally different plane. Eventually I added wheels and learnt to land.
Then I bought the HobbyLobby F18 blue angels (through ejf.com), my first EDF. It is a wonderful plane and has very nice maners. Recently I added retracts to the F18. It is my preffered plane.
Recently I got a FIY F22, with dual EDFs. The stock fans (impeler) are out of center, but I replaced them with GWS edf55 adapters+prop (cut off 3 blades) and now flies great.
I got a F35 on order from hobbycity.com. I'm hoping it will be able to slow down enough to fly it in the local park.