Doug, you stole my idea. I am a self-taught rc'er. After crashing just about everything I touched I bought a drifter II (mid 80's). This was a 2-meter sailplane with rudder-elevator control. I installed a Cox .049 on a power pod and I was on my way. The nice thing about going the glider route is you can get a little practice by just hand launching the thing. I did this and got the trim right and practiced a couple of gentle turns. There isn't too much trouble you can get in with a slow flying glider and only 6' of altitude.

I got pretty proficent with the glider and then moved up to a regular trainer with 4-channels. Since I already had developed the eye-hand coordination I was able to do this crash free.

I would definetly suggest this route to anyone trying to teach themselves to fly. Most typical trainers still move along at a pretty good clip and can put you in trouble if you don't have at least some idea of what to expect.