Do you play a lot of video games? It seems people that play video games have an easier time starting out with r/c aircraft, maybe dependent on if they were flight sim video games or not. The biggest issue is gonna be orientation, and second will be gentle control. I know when I first flew a plane I was banging the sticks around and my plane was just all over the place and slammed into the ground. Only small stick movements are needed for the most part. It takes some getting used to especially when your plane is headed for the ground, and you instictively wanna slam the stick to make it go up. I'm not sure what sim nitroplanes has (fms maybe?), but I'd recommend realflight. It comes with a tx to hook to your computer and its great to learn with. I'd also recommend starting out with a high wing plane, as they are self correcting, as in if you turn and let go of the stick it will level it self out as long as the model is trimmed properly and your not flying in 20 mph winds. This might all seem like a fair bit of time to invest in order to get good enough to fly the F-4, but it will be worth it in the end. The F4 won't be much fun when you take off and hit the ground 20 secs later. My first flight ever lasted about 10 secs. So anyways, I'd invest in a high wing trainer type aircraft for you and your brother. Not to promote another manufacturer but the hobbyzone mini cub and super cub are great to learn on. I crashed my mini cub about 8 times yesterday (lots of wind and I was just messing around), and didn't break a single part. Just flipped it over and took off again. The mini cub runs for about 119 or so rtf. After thinking about it some more, if you dont wanna spend money on a sim go pick up an airhogs aero ace or something from walmart for like 20 ish bucks. It won't have the full elevator controls or anything that the hobby level planes have but it will teach you orientation and you can crash those all day and keep on flying.