No sympathy on my end. I wouldn't have even helped him look for his plane. I'm about a year and a half into this hobby and took 9 months to solo. Why? Because I had scheduling conflicts with the club trainers and had to get flying time whenever I could. It ate me up that I had a new toy and couldn't fly it, but I also understood the danger to the plane and to other's property with an untrained pilot in charge. I never did anything without the trainer's say so, and as a result, can now fly safely and have a good rapport with other club members. No accidents as of yet except to the plane during training mishaps. There is no excuse for even starting a plane without having soloed with a trainer. It's against AMA regs (therefore illegal), it's not covered by AMA insurance, and it's dangerous and stupid. A person who would do that isn't welcome to fly near me and shouldn't be in the hobby.

If I sound like a Nazi about safety, consider that my other hobby is competitive shooting (about 8 years on that). We drill safety constantly in matches, and to date there have been no injuries due to negligent discharges since IPSC started in the 70's. What AMA sponsored club can say that same about model planes?