Thanks for all the helpful advice guys. As much as I like doing things on my own, I can see that the majority of you think its crazy for me to fly without an instructor. I'm now looking around the clubs near by and will consider joining one to help me learn.

Alan0899 - Thanks for the link to the VMAA site. I'm in Melbourne, so I'll probably pay a visit to one of those clubs next weekend (tomorrow I'm taking out the nexstar to break in the engine - no flying though, but it will be tempting )

I'm still confident of flying it by myself because I can do perfect take offs and landings on the simulator nearly every time - even with wind, and I've also got the hang of flying it towards me, the controls don't confuse me at all. I havent crashed since my first day on the simulator, but I do understand that it is not exactly like the real thing. The reason I'm considering using an instructor is to learn what I don't already know, and there might be something that I think I understand but I'm actually missing completely. I guess it would also give me more confidence to know that my plane is set up correctly before flying it too.