RE: "Quest for the First Bird" or "What Have I Gotten Myself Into?"
I am glad someone mentioned the simulator route. That is the way I am doing it. I bought one of the 2 channel Aerobirds 2 years ago and despised it. The only way to pull up was to add throttle, if your were too close to the ground, too bad. Other than that plane I have never really flown.
That was then, this fall I bought FS One and started flying it. I put about 5-6 hours into the Alpha 40 trainer (has ailerons) and decided I would never do without. FS-One has that very same Aerobird I hated. After becoming quite competant on the trainer I tried the Aerobird and despised it all over again. I then tried the 3 channel Aerobird and it was far nicer, having elevators. However, by then I really missed having ailerons.
Since then I have been religiously practicing landings and take-offs in heavy cross winds and with turbulent wind. I can land the trainer 95% of the time in bad conditions and almost 100% of the time in good conditions. I can fly upside down and do careful figure 8s in the sky inverted. I have moved onto aerobatic aircraft and I find them easier to control now because I have solid practice time (about 20 hours now). I only fly on high rates so I have good stick control and I only use the normal ground based view like real RC flying. I use the chase plane view occasionally to debug something I am learning but not often.
Right now I am leaning towards buying the [link=http://www.greathobbies.com/productinfo/?prod_id=EFL2500]Mini ShowTime 4D ARF[/link] because it flies easily and can fly slowly if wanted. I know the traditionalists won't like it but the simulator used properly can teach you to fly on your own. I would have destroyed any plane I bought without the sim but I can push things without risk and learn far faster at home in my living room than I could wrecking real planes.