As another self taught guy also flies real airplanes, yes all these RC planes are toys, I say go for it. While us pilots don't have the command of the thumbs that build with time we know a little bit how and why an airplane flies. Yes, I crashed my first time, but I had a 3 channel electric. So I put on a new prop and haven't looked back since. And guess what, I've become a pretty decent RC pilot. So just keep her slow and remember the roll and yaw are backwards when she's pointing at you. And like they love to drill in your head during you private training, on final the most important thing is...airspeed. Low stall spins suck in the RC world too haha.
Sorry to hear your real bird got destroyed, what did you have?