ORIGINAL: foodstick
I am going to take a slightly different angle on this... To me there is no reason to ever let your flying skill determine when to quit. If you never learn to fly and you enjoy the building,hanging out at the field ...
What else matters? There really aren't any points or reasons to do anymore than have fun. That being said I hope you can learn to your desired goal. There are some great suggestions above...
I personally will probably keep building if I can't see the airplane any further away than the work bench..I will simply get someone I trust to fly it. Its all about enjoying ANY PART of the hobby..there are no real required parameters ...
Really good advise. I started at about 65 also. My first instructor kind of gave up on me after about five months and three totaled planes and a number of rebuilds. A good day was when I only broke three props. Ifound a guy on Ebay that had 12x6 Zingler for about $0.50 each in a bulk purchase, so I bought about three dozzen from him. I used a lot of them. Still have a few left though.
My second instructor was a susprise. Icould take off OKat the point, so when I got it up, he didn't say anything. What do I don now?? His answer was fly the plane as you want. Wow, no script, no preasure to do it exactly right. I flew with this guy a few times, and a few flights with a couple other guys. Each had a little different approach, and by the time I was on my last instructor, it was about three days on the buddy box and then I soloed. I was flying a 4*60 at this time. Ibroke it in half on my first solo landing. I patched it back and got myCP sticker two days later. I've crashed a lot since, but they are getting a little further apart. As stated, crashes are part of the learning experience. Another thing to keep in mind, that you will not have the eyes and reaction time that the 20 yr olds do, but don't worry about it. It's all about having fun. Even the crashes. I have destroyed beyond repair eight planes. I've come up with some interesting mixes of new and old parts in the process, actually my best flying plane.
If you can strap a trainer wing, one with a reasonable amount of dihedral on a stick type fuselage, you end up with a very good trainer. When I got a bit better on it, I changed the wing to a 4*60 airfoil with a flatter dihedral and really enjoyed the plane. It was about square, IE length and WS were close to the same number. The long moments gave it a nice easy flying style until you cranked up the volume.
Hang in there and enjoy what you enjoy and don't get to cranked up about still being on the buddy box and still crashing. There is only one guy at the field that I have seen crash, including all my instructors. On the other hand, this guy as been a club member for a few decades, and no one has seen him crash, or fly for that matter. I've not seen his hanger, but I understand it is full of the lates and greatest, but he buys, builds, and then retires the planes. He enjoys it and the friendship at the field. More power to him.
Don