I second psb667. I started with a 3 channel super cub, it's a great plane to learn with. The best part is a repair kit is available at pretty much any office supply store (clear packaging tape). When i first got into the hobby, I started with the 3 ch SC then moved onto a $100 POS elec 4 ch corsair from ebay. The corsair taught me to use the ailerons the right way without forgetting the plane had a rudder (common mistake). After beating the crap out of those to planes, I moved up to nitro power/balsa construction. I used the alpha 40 RTF to learn with. There are huge differances moving into a larger scale nitro plane. After that, I was comfortable with almost any sport plane and warbirds. Bips still scare me a bit though (snap too darn fast). Take your time and enjoy yourself. You seem pretty certain about teaching yourself, so I would definatly reccomend buying a cheap foam electric plane just to get your crashes over with.