RE: When is the average first crash?
I guess it depends on what you consider a crash. I busted up my trainer a few times within the first month - mainly things like hard landings ripping off the firewall, hitting the leading edge of the wing on some cornstalks after a dead stick, etc....
Then, a couple months after soloing I managed to rip the gear off my Four Star on a botched landing.
None of my mishaps so far have resulted in more than an hour's worth of repairs. I did fly my combat SPAD full speed into the cornfield once, but all it needed was a new firewall and some duct tape on the wing.
It seems like most guys do some damage to their trainers, but I have only seen a few that totally destroyed them.