Just a short story here.

I tried to learn how to fly by myself, it was a total loss. I killed a plane in one week. I got so mad, I gave up on the idea of flying all together. Well here we are 15 years later, I joined the AMA, joined a local club, and started all over agian. This is a lot of fun, when you learn the right skills. As far as a trainer goes, I like the SIG LT40. Now that sounds a little strange, seeing as how I have only flown this one plane. ( well, successfully at least) I am allso a big fan of the flight sim's. You can learn a lot from those. It may seem like a video game, but you will learn a lot from it.

Good luck,
I hope you stay with it, It is a lot of fun.