Get a knowledgeable flier to trim your plane and make sure everything is sound. As far as learning, get Realflight G2 and be able to land on the runway 10 out of 10 times with all the planes. If you can do that, you are competent. What I did was practice taking off, doing a stall turn, then land. Take off again, tail slide, and land. I could do this 8 out of 10 times, then I started flying the trainer. Nerves were my only issue. Flying as a breeze.