ORIGINAL: spaceterp
Thanks for the advice. My professor wants me to finish assembling the plane ASAP so having someone else watch is probably not an option at this point. Yes, piper_chuck generously agreed to let us learn on his GWS slow stick. It sounds like we will have to learn on a trainer before flying the mini super sportster. Hopefully my professor will understand and have the patience. Hes a very go, go, go type of person when he wants to do something. We are definitely building a prototype wing and testing that separately from the plane until we have a solid design and have mastered the R/C plane. Thank you for all the advice.
My suggestion was more along the lines of just having someone like piper_chuck fly the mini super sporster. The project seems to require at least one successful flight. If someone that is inexperienced has control of the aircraft and crashes then the flight with the prototype wing will not happen until the plane is rebuilt.
To answer your origninal question on how long it will take to learn to fly a mini super sporster. Well, it could take 6 months or it could take the full year, and some could never get the skills to fly that type of plane. There are people out there that still crash high wing trainers on landings and they have been flying for years. The flight characteristics of the high wing trainer compaired to a low wing aircraft is completely different. Then multiply that by adding mini and super means two things it's small, so it is hard to see, and "long" ailerons make for a very twitchy movements increasing the challenge of flying.
Regardless, good luck on the project and keep us updated.