Okay, you are asking; 'can I learn to fly without an instructor?' The answer is yes. But how hard do you want to work and how much do you want to spend? I am self taught or as another posted I was my own instructor. I started by going to the Local Hobby Shop (LHS) and picked up a Park Zone J-3 Cub. I bought it twice for the cost of repairs. So thats about $320. Then I bought a Hobbico Nexstar Select; great deal for $300 brand new. I put it in the closet and deployed to Iraq for 4 months with a laptop computer and RealFlight G2 (about $100 used on RCU classifieds) and practiced during all of my spare time. I probably have 200+ hours on the simulator now. Well I got back last January found my local club and feild and took my plane up for a successfull day one solo. However!!! I do a lot of reading and learned how to set up the plane, ground trim and tune the engine. I also have extensive background with nitro R/C cars so the engine was not entirely foreign to me. So all in all from start (J-3 Cub purchase) to finish (solo flight with Nexstar) was about 1 Yr. + or - a few months. If that sounds like what you want to do or something you can do then go for it. But if something goes wrong refer to the above posts and select the apropriate, "I told you so." Make no mistake! I wish you the best of luck.