My Minimax is a mid-wing, but wing placement in general has little affect to difficulty. It does affect visibility down vs up. If my daughters were interested, I would allow them to fly just about any name brand ultralight provided they received proper instruction and provided that the unit was properly built and in good condition.
I like many of them out there, but if I had to pick one, I might look at some Kolbs, just because so many have been built and and many of the parts in the kits were factory built. I would also like one with a common proven engine prop combination if I was not the tinkering type. I have seen some atrocious workmanship on all kinds of ultralights, so if buying a used one, I would trust the workmanship of the factory over just anyones. I know what to look for, but your friend may not, so I guess he might want to stick with a type that is mainly a factory built one that required little simple assembly.
I am far from the "safety cop" type, however a non or low time pilot should definately get some training in something similar before crawling into one of these things. Even though it is a "slow ultralight" it requires the exact same skill level to fly as a Piper Cub or a Cessna 150. I intended to at least get to the solo stage of traditional flight instruction before I flew my Minimax I was building. I ended up going head over heels and getting my pilots license in a Cessna 150 before I completed my Minimax, however I still had a friend take me up in a Cub for some tailwheel instruction before my first flight of the Minimax.
If he has 15-20k in it, I doubt he would want to risk damaging it or himself by trying to cowboy it with out any training. It has been done, but alot of guys have wrecked them too using this strategy.
5 years ago, a guy at work bought an old used Minimax and spent a couple months and a couple grand getting it flyable again. He had about 5 hours of instruction a couple years prior in a Piper Cherokee. Against my pleading with him, he tried to fly it one weekend and showed up to work that Monday with a bruised face and a cut lip. He totaled it when he panicked during his first landing attempt.
It was hard to keep down the "I told you so's"!
