I've seen a few newbies have a good first flight or two. With simulators it does make the task much easier and I highly recommend them. The down side is the confidence gained in the beginning giving a sence of knowing more than what is actual. When moving on to more powerful and maneuverable planes many do a lot of crashing. We all hear about the winderful first few flights and normally not the disaster that happened just a few flights later.

EXCAP232