in short, please just visit a club with your plane and have them look over it, then take it up for you

in long
i just saved a guy, younger than me, his airplane carieer. he bought a f-18 ductfan foamy as a first plane falling for the usual internet bs of "even a beginner can fly it". the plane wasnt setup to bad (it was a rtf) but it wouldnt have made it more than 10 seconds in the air, the radio didnt work pased 75 yards and his servo linkages would have fallen off in the first few seconds. thank the lord he stopped by our field and asked for help. i took him up on my spad trainer and after a few tanks he could keep it in the air for 2-3 min just getting disorentated now and then. he isnt a bad pilot, a few more flights and ill get him doing takeoff's and landings.
after he was in the air. he asked someone to fly his f-18, no one at the club had any confidence in the plane and shunned it away, saying it wouldnt stand a chance (even his parents who bought him the plane told me to throw it out, saying it wasnt worth my effort), they wanted me to fly it as is, but i went over everything saying "at least give it a chance", spent a hour looking over the plane. then hooked up one of my recievers did a range check (it wasnt great but it was flyable), and put it on the runway, everyone got out their cameras to get ready for the crash. with the duct fan screaming the plane slowly gained speed as it went down the runway, after about 100 yards i touched the elevator and the thing leaped into the air, then dived towards the soybean field. so i breathed on the elevator and up she went. the smile on that kids face was great. no one cared about the plane but him (i just felt it, he said he didnt care but i knew he did). so i did my best to " at least give the plane a chance".
the plane flew ok, i slowed it down to much stalled it out and it went in the soybean field after about 3 min of flight, i thought i lost radio at first but after the walk out to get it i realized what i did (it is after all a ductfan those things take forever to get up to speed)
i walked back to the runway and took the plane off again, this time keeping the speed up, the plane is a handful while landing and touchy on the elevator, not a beginner plane.

so the moral of the story, go to a club. if this guy would have taken it off in the local park it would have come home in a trash bag, he never would have flown again. now he is joining the club and getting his own trainer. i want to get him flying his f-18 on a buddybox soon so he can at least say he flew it. its just one of those planes that wont be around to long (it flies fine and has plenty of power but the landing and stall speed are very close, and with a duct fan you really have to be ichy on the throttle)