I am one of those dumbasses that tried to fly without an instructor. Took a brand new Avistar and got it up in the air. Spent about 6 minutes flying out of control and when I decided that I better try landing My appraoch turn was too slow and too high banked........yes you guessed it......tip stall. Plane fell about 20 feet and broke the plane in two.

Spent the next two days putting it back together and took it to the field the following week where my instructor test flew it. He took me up and showed me the ropes for two flights. I guess he felt confident to let me solo and on the third flight I took off, flew around, and landed. It wasn't the smoothest landing, but it wasn't a crash