i am a beginner and trained on the nexstar. i never hooked up the afs or whatever. was told that it would hamper the learning curve. started with the flaps on. in hindsight i wish i hadent used them at all provides to much lift and as stated in other posts when you remove them you have to retrim your elevator. if your starting out my reccomendation would be disconnect the afs thingie, dont put the flaps on. but leave the wing tip extensions on untill you get a few solo flights under your belt.