I will second (third, fourth?) the recommendation to start with a buddy box rather than passing the transmitter. Passing a transmitter does not work well. The instructor needs to be able to respond very quickly to a bad situation and passing the box is sometimes not fast enough. I have seen several crashes happen when passing transmitters. I have never seen a buddy box crash, other than from a mechanical or electronic failure.

I also got started in control line when I was a kid. In my 20s I took up full scale, got my license, and accumulated about 300 hours. I thought that with my prior experience in CL and full scale, RC would be easy. I was very wrong! I learned on a buddy box and my instructor had to take over control countless times. I would have likely gone through several trainer airplanes if we were passing a transmitter.