[304065]

Joe, nice! That looks like a LOT of fun! Is that a little venturi tube?

For learning to fly, there's nothing wrong with a spam-can. They are very docile handling, very stable, nice side-by-side panel, basic IFR instruments for learning unusual attitude recovery (don't want to do a JFK). Once you get your license you can take a couple friends along for a hundred-dollar cheeseburger.

I got my private in N714KX, a 1977 C150 with such niceties as electric flaps with a pre-selector switch: you don't have to hold the switch down to raise or lower. If I had it to do all over again, I'd learn in a Cub.

When I got my tailwheel checkout, I had to un-learn a lot of bad habits, mostly related to directional control and use of the rudders. There is no question that learning to fly in a conventional geared airplane forces you to develop a keen sense of which way the airplane is flying vs. which way it's pointing, and make the two match when the wheels are near the ground.

Unfortunately in today's world of GPS and Mode S, you practially need to have an electrical system in the airplane to fly. So a basic electrical system, consisting of a GPS/Comm, a transponder, and an electric horizon, would be on my short list. If you were going to have a gyro instrument in the panel, might as well spend the extra money and get pitch information-- considering that 50% of fatal accidents are caused by VFR pilots proceeding into IMC, that just might save your bacon someday.