RE: Any positive tips on self teaching on .40 trainer
Buy lots of glue because you are going to need it. One flight for 30 seconds (if it last that long) will be all you are going to get, then it will be a week or more of repairs and then perhaps another flight of maybe 45 seconds this time, and then another week or so of repairs...... and so on until you get it. If this is your way of having fun, then knock yourself out and go for it. If not, then find a local club and have an instructor teach you how to fly. Who knows, you may be a natural, but even naturals go through a learning process.
When you learned to ride a two wheeled bicycle, did you fall off the first few times? Flying a radio controlled airplane is the same thing except that when you fell off your bike, you didn't bust up your equipment, only yourself and maybe a scratch on the bike. If you crash your airplane hard enough, and you will, you will damage the receiver and the servos and your next crash may be the results of damaged equipment before you get to dumb thumb it in yourself.
As Forest Gump said, "Stupid is as stupid does!"