I started without an instructor flying the Sky Scooter Pro 2. BTW, it DOES have a channel so that you can stop the motor & glide. The previous versions of the Sky Scooter did not have this ability. It's pretty durable and easily fixable. Also it's not very twitchy, which is a good thing for beginners. You can continue to use the receiver, transmitter & servos in another plane once you feel the need to move on. I'm using everything but the servos in a Unicorn right now.

I also hear good things about the Slow Stick, however I have no personal experience.

Definately fly on a sim for a while. FMS is free!

Good luck,
Brad