I'm 100% self taught. I began with a wide, wide, wide open area and with an electric Zagi 400. The plane flew about 30 feet and crashed. I picked it up, made some mental adjustments and flew it again. That was about 7 years ago. I now fly mostly glow, but still tinker with electrics and now even electric helicopters which I'm also self taught on.

It's not impossible to self teach as I'm an example. I think understanding the main concepts of flight like: thrust, lift, drag, windspeed, airspeed, glide ratios, sink rates, etc, etc, etc, helps out a lot. Also being able to tell between left, right, up and down helps too, then remembering when inverted up means down and down means up. If the plane is flying towards you, left is right and right is left. Geezzz.

I'm with probably the majority, if you're able get some help, do it. It's not only the flying but the setup of the actual plane, control surfaces all moving in their correct directions respectively, engine turning, battery charging, servo setup (zero the servo/neutral), etc, etc, etc.

Best of luck,,,,