I spent a good part of a summer teaching myself both to fly control line and how to repair a crashed airplane. Now I fly with the handle held upside down compared to everyone else. Should I decide to fly RC I will get an instructor.
A friend who lived in San Antonio and flew CL told me his sister knew a number of pilot trainees. They would scoff at his activities and say that they could fly CL because of their pilot training. He would bet them $50 they couldn't. He collected on a number of bets.