My first was a $10 IR 2 channel from woot.com. Then I bought a used Walkera 22E of of Craigslist. It was NiMH and it wouldn't fly. Bought a new battery from Xheli... still didn't have enough power to get off the ground. So I bought a Blade CP off of Craigslist. It also was NiMH. I'd get about 1-2 mins of flight time, but it's all I had, so I made it work. I learned to hover on that one.
Then I sold both of those, and bought a Belt CP and an EXI kit. I crashed the Belt on battery #4. Moved the power sysover to the EXI. I'm now on bat 38 without a crash. (I'm due for one soon, I'm afraid)
When I had the Blade CP, I had FMS, but I only had an old playstation controller with a USB adapter that I used to fly. Very crude. I now have an E-Sky USB tx and I spend quite a bit of time practicing orientations (and things I'd not yet dare try with the EXI) in Aerofly Pro Deluxe and Helisim. Helisim is free. It's probably the most realistic of the free sims.