I built my first one from a kit ,but never learned to fly with it ,it never got to into the air ,it got wiped out on the ground run!
After all that hard work ,it all went down the drain ,but I did at least enjoy the build.

I bought a foamy of a similar model which was a 48'' Cessna ,an transferred everything over ,took it out for the first flight an still
had issues on the ground take off run ,so I got so frustrated an pick it up ,rev the little 15 engine up an threw it ,to my surprise
it just flew off as nice as it could ,LOL......I had to act fast an learn the sticks on the controller ,once I gathered up my senses an
got the feel of the controls ,it was pretty easy!

From there ,I just hand launched the plane ,I also learned how to fine tune the trims of the elevator were it hand launched every
time level!

After that ,I bought a 40 size 72'' wing span Aircore 40 plane that was made out of corrugated plastic ,it was a fold an glue an fly
plane that was indestructible .
I finally learned to do the ground take offs with out crashing!
Another thing you have to do ,is to learn how far you can take the plane so you can keep your baring on it ,as I got mine too
far out an lost my baring on it in which I could not tell wether it was coming or going ,thank God I pre set my throttle to shut
the engine down if something happened!
It went down in the cotton field an only broke the nose gear block ,which was an easy fix!

All in all ,my advice would be to learn with a cheap plane ,an or with a trained person!
You can still build a nice plane ,but I don't recommend using it for training ,but do recommend using something real!