in the days B.S."before sim " learning to fly was a slow and a sometimes painful process when I first learned, when I was in high school, a great flying day was tooling around the field a couple of times and a sucessfull landing without a crash.
coming back to it years later, there are trainers ready to go out of the box, almost and computer sim's to learn with as a package deal, I get my new trainer, load the sim and spent the next week crashing into everything after 2 weeks I am making my landings after 3 weeks things are getting smooth on the sim.
so I hit the field and after some much needed help with my real plane it took about 6-8 flts before needing help wasn't needed for flying, as for tuning a engine and the extra things that come with time that just takes expierence but I had the basics down, it takes practice.
if you can afford to get the G-3 sim GET IT! you won't regret it, if you go to www.knifeedge.com there is a bunch of planes you can download for free for the G-3 sim that guys design and post for people to use its great,just about every kind of plane you can think of.
going to a field and not having any skills is also OK, you are going to learn, just a bit slower is all and it will take a bit more time.
the one thing to remember, everybody was a beginner, and everybody crashes,some less than others but it still happens .
now this is what you will end up with soon enough here is just a couple I don't have photos of em all