RE: To flap or not to Flap. That is the question
Hey Frog welcome to the passion of flying RC, but I won,t say welcome back to the joy of building or flying controlline since you probably never really stopped.
I am a fellow old Ukie dude who never could completely stop and still am active along with the RC.
OK first things first your choice of airplanes or a trainer is superb, that one along with the Senior Kaydet or the Senior Telly are just about the greatest trainers ever. Heck I even built a Senior Telly with six .25's on it.
Regarding flaps. It sounds like you are talking of dedicated flaps rather than flaperons which in itself is fine and somewhat more desirable than flaperons for safety and control reasons but they are still flaps. They will buy you virtually nothing and in the training environment just cause a lot of wasted (destroyed) airplanes when the fellows should be concentrating on flying.
Flaps are always one of the earliest things the fellows want but it is a complete waste of time in the training evironment that will actually increse the time to learn.
Now to your last paragraph I would highly recommend you forget all thoughts of just having someone do a trim flight and then you just going for it (especially playing grab the box). You are just asking to loose the airplane if you do.
Find your local club and find a mentor (Oh, OK I will say the ugly word - instructor). You will be glad you did.
John