Possible material for creating a sticky on what makes a good trainer:

DO NOT buy an ARF to learn how to fly. I'm not against ARFs (in fact, I have several myself) but I think they send the wrong message to a newbie; and that message being that it's okay to crash because you can just buy another.

I learned to fly with a CG Falcon 56 that I built in 1970. (Yes, I'm OLD! .) I remember spending MONTHS carefully building it and the last thing that I wanted to do was destroy it on the first flight. So I started out slowly and carefully with learning how to taxi, then short hops, then longer hops, then hops with a slight turn... Did any of those hops end in a crash? Yes, but since they were still close to the ground, the damage was usually limited to a shattered prop and a scuffed-up wingtip. The resultant repairs taught me as much about flying as much as the flights themselves! Eventually, I progressed to flights that ended due to running out of fuel instead of shattered props!

After getting out of the military, I had to relearn how to fly. ARFs and buddy boxes were just coming onto the scene in the late '70s and I figured that their low investment of time and money would make the relearning process cheaper. Unfortunately, cheaper led to my not taking the learning process seriously. (It was less-painful to destroy something that I didn't have sweat equity in!) I DID eventually relearn to fly but it wasn't as rewarding as it was with my hand-built Falcon!

I realize that my way of learning is probably controversial so please understand that it's simply the procedure that worked for me. Another newbie's mileage may vary!

Harvey