Man, this sounds totally shady. I hope it doesn't happen to me on my first time 'round. But as I understand the field where I'll be flying has a lot of active and nice members, so I'm not too worried.

So, let's get this straight. You've never flown before and the first time the thing rolled down the runway it was by an 'instructor' who wasn't really your instructor...and he didn't even manage to get it off the ground? Then while retrieving your semi-crashed plane the 'instructor' ditched out. Meanwhile, it's never been trimmed or checked properly by an instructor, you've never used a buddy box and no real instructor has taken you out to learn the basics?! I'd have to say that you're pretty lucky to have not hurt yourself, the plane or anyone else that might have been near. I made the foolish mistake 10 years ago with my avistar not to have an instructor, and if I had one s/he probably would've noticed some build problems because (aside from it being my fault) the two times I got to fly something went wrong (not directly my fault). The first flight I was doing great, flying circles and stuff when the entire thing shut off. Engine cut and the servos locked, it glided into a tree (we got it down and there was considerable damage). Second time I lost orientation and darted it into the ground. B0rk3d the firewall, propeller, needle, dings in the wing, holes in the covering, etc, etc, etc. It was a sure lesson of what NOT to do! I don't have the money to be crashing planes like that even now...I'm goin 'round the right way this time. I hope you get an honerable person to help you out next time you're at the field. I think your bag of luck will be empty before you know it []