Dear Scott,
I say go for it. Have fun, learn. We all crash model planes from time to time, that is the nature of our great hobby.
I crashed no less than 9 airplanes between 1966 and 1972 before someone took me under their wing and put an all foam J-3 cub .20 size into my hands and taught me how to turn bank turn. In those days there weren't no computer sims, there weren't any radios for a young kid on a 5 dollar a week allowance that were trainer functionable. Go get that extra. A real nice one that I enjoyed and built right out of MAN free plans was the R. Urivitch designed Extra 3.25 with a OS wankel. Awesome. Now available from L#nier
Good luck