As an actual flight instructor for some forty years, in addition to being a model airplane "pilot", I have had occasion to teach R/C model "pilots" to fly. Operating a model airplane in no way prepares you to fly actual airplanes. A model "pilot" is just as confused in the cockpit during his first flights as any other student. There is really no comparison between the skill and training required to toss a little model around an open field and making an approach to ATL on a dark and stormy night with an engine out. It's like tossing a nerf ball around the front yard vs playing football in the NFL. I flew model airplanes for years before becoming an actual pilot and will continue to fly them whenever I lose my medical and can no longer fly the real ones, and I enjoy every minute of it. But before you get too smug, remember that "going solo" means you are the sole occupant of the aircraft.