Ihave heard this from others as well as doing it myself. If you want to learn to fly a plane, first learn to fly a helicopter. It doesnt need to be a full collective rip roaring monster bird, just something like the Blade mCX or mSR, even the 120SR would be good, but the latter should only be after the mCX.

This is what I did, Ican hover th mSR and 120SR pretty good now and found transitioning to planes has been really easy, Ican fly fairly well and able to recover from mistakes much faster and correctly now than before. I think it is a good way to learn the fine motor skills required for flying without the beating you take crashing planes. These little ones can slam into walls, floors, ceilings and yet still go right back to flying. They are the Timex of the RC world. Parts are also cheap for them if you do break something. I also found that after flying now, after about 20 flights, the heli was even easier to control.