I fly helis and planes. The airliner is a great plane. It is more difficult to fly than a trainer. I found helis a lot easier to learn than planes. You can take baby steps with a heli and get the feel for it. As you know a heli on the sim is a whole lot easier to fly than the model. I can do any 3d manuver you want on the sim, not so with a model. The same thing applies to planes but you can not take baby steps. Once you are in the air you had better know how to fly and land.
The efight airlinner is not a good choise for a first flight because the wind affects it due to light weight and a huge cross section. It is a quick plane that is easily damaged in an accident and it does not have the self correction charictoristics of a trainer. It also likes to sink rather quickly when you reduce airspeed to land. The flights are short so you don't get a whole lot of time to get a feel for the plane before you need to come in and you don't have a whole lot of time to get the approch right to hit the runway.

If you are dead set on the airlinner go for it but have a competent pilot there incase you get into trouble. You should have the hang of it in just a day or so if you can fly anything on the sim. GOOD LUCK!

It is a common misconseption that a heli pilot can fly a plane because it is a harder animal to tame. Yes and No. I know several people that can fly a heli like a pro but turn planes into expensive lawn darts. They fly the same but different if that makes sence. A plane in forward flight when compared to a heli flys the same but more stable. A heli is difficult to hover but once you can do that you can land anywhere. Planes tend to be more difficult to bring in. If you are in an open field its no problem but hitting a runway takes practice.