Hello; I taught myself to fly, it was expensive, and to be honest, I didn't really learn until I had an instructor. I didn't know anybody who flew, and asking at the local hobby shops didn't help since I lived far from the nearest city. I suppose a lot of people who try by themselves don't intend to take off, but do. Then deal with it. I surprisingly took off, and had to learn to guide the plane around without help. Then I figured that if I just flew the plane down to ground level, and chop the thriottle, it would land okay. I broke a lot of lovely planes getting past the very beginning. Not to mention the liability issue, which I hadn't even considered at the beginning. I even went to a local flying school (full scale) and chartered a plane and pilot, and studied what he did and asked lots of questions, to help in my Model flying.

I did eventually find some other flyers about 40 miles away, and linked up with them, where my instruction continued. I was pretty much "out of control" when I flew from their site. They thought I was dangerous, I thought I was doing great. Under their supervision I became a more proficient pilot, and am now one of the instructors at our field.

My advice is to find an instructor, get him to check out your plane before any attempt is made, and follow his advice. We use a buddy cord for beginners, and crashes still happen, but people do learn to fly without wreching their planes.

If I could do it all over, I wouldn't attempt to fly without an instructor. I succeeded but it cost me ten times what it should have, not to mention the emotional cost.