Originally posted by Dakker
I know I should probably get an instructor, but what is an instructor going to do except tell me how a plane flies?? I've been to flight school and have 17 hours of logged flight time in a real plane, I know how they work.
The only way I'm going to learn to fly is to practice, and get a feel for it myself, everyone crashes, everyone learns. Not everyone had the advantages of an instructor around to teach them what they know today, and I'm just one of those weird people that only learns by doing it myself, not by watching others do it. I dunno, maybe if there is an experienced r/c flyer at the field, I'll ask him for some pointers, but I've done the sim, I've flown a real plane, I'll get the hang of it at somepoint.
There's crashes that bend the landing gear and there's crashes that turn the plane into a pile of sticks.
A .40-sized trainer is more than capable of the latter. Also, the electric is probably not going to help much on several factors. Also, also, full-scale pilots often have a lot of trouble handling the third person perspective of an RC.
Having an instructor on a buddy box would probably go a long way to getting over those jitters. He (she) may never have to take over, or he may have to. In any case, he would probably keep your airplane from bashing into a million pieces before you get the hang of it.
IMHO, that's the reason to go with an instructor.