I don’t belong to or fly at a club self taught yes yes I have crashed many times. Not my flying but no depth perception due to a eye injury, I personally started with the FMS Ranger 1220 in a RTF, have since upgraded to a Spektrum transmitter replaced the ailerons etc with real hinges after many many flights crashes again can’t get depth so I can’t tell how close of far a tree bush etc is very well. The Ranger says to use a 3s 1300 but I use a 3s 2200 Spektrum smart batt and get 5-7 on the 1300 and 12-15 on the 2200’s. The plane is just hard have hit power wires trees all kinds of things the only break was a servo gear strip and bent the front landing gear spring. Like $20 later back in the skies and have moved up to the Elfite Trojan 1.1 BNF. I like it so much I actually bought 2!! The Ranger also comes with floats if you have the area did that or desire, definitely think joining a club is important but not all of us live in areas that RC is very popular. Keep the plane on safe learn to take off us your ailerons elevators then I started using my rudder. I now weather permitting fly atleast 6-12 flights daily nice being retired. Here’s a pic of the Ranger nice mid size and $220 in the RTF package