I taught myself. Had my first flight when I was 18. I was an idiot then (sometimes things haven't changed much! ). Things went well for me, largely because I'd been preparing for years. As I kid I grew up in the shadow of the airport. I was lucky to have--and still do have--great friends that loved airplanes as much as I do. We spend summers playing with different toy airplanes. Not that much as changed.

I did pick up real experience that was invaluable to me. Playing with different free-flight models taught me a lot about weight and balance. The importance of building straight, too. I learned the basics of linkages and hinges with simple control-line models. What's more fun than a cheap .049 trying to pull balsa planks and string into the air on a softball infield? My friends had their father's old control line engines, and we spent time learning the basics of glow by trial and error.

I learned about radio equipment with RC cars. That solved the left-right reversal, too. Having some level of familiarity with servos and receivers took most of the mystery out of that aspect of things when I build my Aerostar. I knew the basics of battery maintenance. I think I was 14 when I got the Aerostar. I'd learned the basics of building with Guillows kits over the few years before that. If you can get a cheap Guillows kit (with the cheap wood inside of it) together and looking good, you can build a quality RC kit.

It took me years to get that Aerostar finished. During that time I'd set up my Fox .40BB Deluxe on a test stand a few times and got it well broken in. That was a cantankerous little engine. It's sitting in a box in my closet, and someday when I'm having troubles with one of my engines I'll dig it out for some perspective. Two of my friends had moved on to RC during this time, too. We spent time out at the club field. My time was just spent watching, listening, and trying to soak it all in. We sat pylons at the annual races. I thought that beer, cigarettes, and heckling were part of a normal evening at the field. They had these little foot-high shepard's poles with small buckets on them for ashtrays, and they always seemed to be over-flowing.

I devoured every book and magazine I could find that had anything to do with aviation and RC. I had a great grasp on the theories involved--probably a higher level of knowledge than I have today. I spent lots of time on computer simulators. This was before RC sims got popular. You'd set the MS Flight Sim to tower view, and hope to get something valuable out of the experience.

My first RC flight went well. My two friends that had already been flying were there, along with a friend who also made his first flight that day. I don't recall too much of it. It took me about a month to put my Aerostar in the dirt. I was trying to do an outside loop and misjudged the altitude.

If I was learning today, I'd hope that I would have the courage to admit that there's no shame in using a buddy box. A few years ago there was a fellow out at the flying field who swore he knew how to fly, had taken lessons, and only needed a slight refresher on the buddy box. I helped him take his LT-40 up, and he was a long ways from being ready to solo. We worked on flying the pattern and making figure 8s. He was getting better, but had real issues on which way to push the sticks. A week or so later he was back again, and he said he'd gotten some additional help in the meantime. He wanted me to take off for him, but absolutely refused to use the buddy box. So instead we played pass-the-transmitter, which is a stupid, stupid game to play. He didn't want to pass the transmitter at one point, and sure enough his airplane found a tree. That was the last time I saw Dan, who was a nice guy, at the field. Think of the time and money he wasted because of pride. He could be actively enjoying the hobby today if he had been just a little more patient and humble.

Why not take advantage of the great people in this hobby that want to share their knowledge and help you to succeed?