I totally agree with both castlebravo and Seajay.You need to have a security blanket airplane that you don't care about crashing. And fly it till you're totally comfortable in just about any situation. I mean fly the heck out it, spend one day just taking off and landing doing nothing else till your bored to tears (touch and goes), Try all maneuvers even if the plane isn't completely capable of doing them, of course make sure you have plenty of altitude. Do be afraid to push the envelope with it. Then hopefully if it survives use it to warm up with before you move to planes you're more nervous about.