Stormrider, you sound like a pilot! I'm impressed by your patience and commitment. Teaching yourself to fly rc is certainly possible; I began teaching myself about six years ago and I still consider myself to be learning on every flight. For instance, just yesterday I was on YouTube and learned to do a pop-top! Ran to the field and tried them... I'm no good at them yet, but with practice (and altitude!) I'll get it down. I've got a fleet of 5 or 6 aircraft now, with a few 50cc size ships in there that I 3D. Once you get into the hobby and your rate of crashing slows down it's great fun!

I might add that it's VERY important to know approximately what the stall speed on your plane is. On the second flight of all my new aircraft, I spend most of my time gradually slowing and holding altitude with the elevator it until it stalls. By stalling and recovering it repeatedly, I can get a feeling for the speed at which it stalls and, of course, the manner in which it stalls. Does it stall straight forward? Does it tip stall? Does it give any warnings of the impending stall? These are things that I really like to know before I accidentally stall it. My experience has shown me that if you're familiar with your airplane's stall, you can frequently recognize and correct the stall before it fully occurs. This is vital down low or on a landing approach!

Also, as Stormrider briefly mentions, a basic understanding of aerodynamics is very important! It has allowed me to instinctively make the correct inputs in situations where I didn't have the time to think about how to react. I would seriously recommend doing some reading, it's saved me several planes over the years!

Nice write up Stormrider!