Good for you. Many more people could learn to fly on their own if they took an intelligent approach as you did.

Happily for me, my father was a military pilot who liked to take his son out to an open field on Sundays for some flying lessons. I learned on very simple aircraft using an RC system using what were called escapements. My father was an expert at it, but I never quite mastered it. It was a happy day when the first digital radios appeared on the scene.

Today there is a lot of RC stuff for simple small planes called park flyer which I believe one could master on their own perhaps with the help of a simulator. Unfortunately too many people get indocrinated into the usual route of buying a 40 sized trainer and joining a club and the AMA. A pretty boring approrach to flying for people without much imagination or initiative.

Ciao,

Mr Akimoto