Not once did ANYONE assist me with flying. Not once did I use a buddy box. Not once did I have someone take off and land for me and hand me the controls. I learned 100% on my own. I do fly at my friends house, but learned to fly in my back yard. My solo flights were all at my house. Since then I have been flying with my friend at his place where it is more open, and I can fly bigger planes.


As far as my flying skills, I may not be able to fly 3D, but I have not dumb thumbed a plane at all this year, and can take off and land pretty darn good. My LT40 takeoffs and landings are picture perfect, right down the line, and on the numbers, and now that I finally got my 4*120 setup correctly, it too lands and takes off nice and smooth. I just dont have the discipline down yet to fly pattern or know all the ins and outs of them, but that doesn't mean I cant fly the crap out of a plane. I have even done harrier landings with a T-34.

My point here is dont assume that only youngsters can go from a sim to the real thing, if someone puts enough sim time in, they too can fly without an instructor to guide them. I picked up some tips from my friend, but he has yet to teach me anything(except to stay away from this one plane eating tree). Not everyone has easy access to a flying field with someone patient enough to teach them.