If it's any consolation, KevT, your starting experience sounds a lot like mine a couple of years ago. I bought an Aerobird Challenger and spent a fair amount of time crashing it into a local soccer field. I spent a lot of money on replacement wings, tail assemblies, and propellers.

I ran into a local flying club that offered me a training flight on one of the club's glow trainers. The flight instructor took off and got the plane 3 mistakes high, then I got the controls via a buddy box. When I got in trouble, the instructor just let go of the training switch on his radio and took back the sticks.

It was amazing to me how much more authoritative the controls were on the big 4-channel glow trainer. I would tell it to turn, and it actually responded! That was quite a change from my Aerobird Challenger. After a quick 5-minute training flight, they had me hooked. I joined the club and bought my own glow trainer and put the Aerobird Challenger away in the closet.

The funny thing was, after about eight or ten weeks of flight training, I pulled the Aerobird Challenger back out of the closet and I found I could fly it much better than I had previously.

Small electric planes are much more succeptable to wind buffetting, anything above a gentle breeze makes them difficult to control. Small electric planes usually lack control authority. Turning them can't be done suddenly, you have to stay on the sticks to ease them through turns, but you also have to be careful not to overcontrol the plane.

I didn't have much luck learning how to fly my electric RTF by myself. I believe if you can get your FMS simulator working well, it should help you with regard to practicing control orientation and whatnot. If you can't find a local flying club to help you get started, however, I'm afraid you'll just have to keep stockpiling the spare parts you'll need until you finally get comfortable with your plane.