Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of RealFlight simulator. It's about $200 but you can spend that on one crash. I learned on the sim and managed to teach myself how to fly a Raptor 30 thanks to the sim and the info on this site. I still use the sim to practice various maneuvers.
I was experienced with RC planes before I got into helis so the technology was familiar to me.
If you are totally new to this, GET HELP, or it will most likely be an exercise in frustration.
Here's a video of my second raptor flight after practicing on RF. (you need Windows Media Player version 9 to view this).
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jdevine718/raptor.wmv
Jason