When i was young i flew line controll,Last year flew a firebird comander(flew away and couldn't find it, always range test!) I just started flying nitro RC last may. Purchaced the Alpha 40 trainer RTF.I was eager and foolish. My neigbor has rc experiance but has been out of the hobby for quite a while. I got his assistance in getting my motor fired up. We tuned the motor too what we thought was good.I ran a couple tanks takiing around. Was warned "might be suprised of a takeoff ,then what". Used the supplied sim quite a few times.Then asked him if he would test fly it for me. He did ,took off then my engine died aprox 15' up! stalled and came in hard nose first. Hind sight , engine wasn't tuned well enough.Can't blame him i asked him to fly it and we both thought it was running well. I repaired damage and went back out to my flying site. I tried aswell, think i had about four flights then a crash. Was having a really hard time tuning engine.Went out to a local club in search for help. Didn't have MAC yet. Lots of friendly guys there. Presedent tuned my engine in about 5 min. I let him test fly it for me. no problem he even did a loop and a barrel roll. He though it was the funest thing he's flown for a while. I had many succesful flights aprox 30 with about 8-10 prettty hard crashes. I tought myself but the plane only lasted aprox 5 months, i fianaly gave up repairing it. Experianced RC guy i fly with has had his eagle trainer for3-4 years.If i hadn't juped the gun ild still have my alpha.IF it is impossible to find a instructor, ild highly advise taking extra care tuning the engine,Also i was suprised that it would run well on the ground but when the nose lifted it would stall. To test i would run full throttle and hold the plane in the air nose up to check for that.( with a helper) to hold my radio. Also took advice and epoxied my wing together instead of using just supplied tape.This is debatable might be just taped so that it can seperate to minimize damage if crashed. Also suffered my worst crash when my alerion servo fell out, i didn't due a good enough preflight inspection.I wigled it but never tried to pull on it! Was probably knocked loose from a earlier crash. In my opinion. When all is said and done a good instructor will make a huge difference in how long you have your plane. Good Luck