I know a lady who spent over a year trying to fly. She was getting it good, and could fly her Dura-Plane very well up high. Getting close to the ground was petrifying. Her Dura-Plane must have had 2 pounds of epoxy in the wing...it flew like crap. She also had an LT-40 which flew beautiful. She didn't solo on it however because it didn't make it. It was demolished. This increased her fear of the ground even more, and even took the fun out of learning or even trying. She could fly the Dura-Plane or even a combat plane up high, but getting close to the ground...nerves took over. One afternoon we designed and built her an inexpensive trainer. The next day we took it out to the field. I told her not to worry about it at all...just fly it...if it crashes bad enough, we could fix it or build her another one that evening...no big deal since it cost less than $10 to build, and we used the LG and other hardware from the Dura-Plane. She soloed on the first try...perfectly. Flew it like a pro. I asked her what the difference was, and she will be the first to tell you that without the nervousness, it was a piece of cake. So to at least one pilot that I know, taking the fear out of it made all the difference in the world. It's now two years later and she has gone on to become a combat pilot and is just now getting interested in fun-flying. The trainer we built for her is still flying and is one of her favorite airplanes. Removing the fear of crashing was the difference between some one very discouraged and reluctant to keep trying...and someone having the time of her life with this hobby.

Here's a pic of that trainer from a recent Video