RE: Nexstar solo w/o Instructor...what are my odds?
Nothing is impossible, and there are many cases of people who have taught themselves. The odds are greatly stacked against you though, and your nice Plane has a very high chance of becomming a pile of sticks. Even the best instructor will not guarentee you that they will not crash your Plane, but their odds are a 100 times better than yours, and there is a very good chance your Plane will make it through the Training process and beyond. Even though the Nexstar has some aids that come with it, there is no Trainer Airplane that is designed to allow you to teach yourself. Simulators and such are great tools that will help you along the way, but not really designed to take the place of a qualiflied Instructor. It would also be irresponsible for anyone who has experience with R/C Airplanes to advise you to go it alone, because all these people who have posted before me, and myself included were new at one time, and have more than likely seen alot of people trained since, and know that it is a learning process that really needs an Instructor. If you choose to do it alone, then I wish you the best of luck, and I sincerely hope you are able to learn regardless of what I have recommended and others have, and Welcome to RCU!