Well, Red, you are off to a good start.. with a good attitude about learning to fly. You are wise to wait to fly it with an instructor and a buddy box.
I started with a Tower 40 trainer and an OS 46 engine. My radio was an Airtronics RD6000. I flew it for a short time but my work travel schedule was brutal.. pretty much commuting to and from England several times a year for a couple of years. I even bought an RC trainer in England and flew with a club over there.
When the travel started to level off, I bought a NexStar Select RTF, glow powered plane and swapped out the Futaba basic radio and put in my Airtronics system (took the AFS right out of that puppy). I solo'ed with that with the aid of one of the club instructors. I actually had three other instructors working with me from time to time. It took me about three months to solo, mainly because of my schedule and the fact that I felt that I just wasn't ready to solo in spite of what the instructor said.
Then one day, I showed up at the field, no one was there, but I wanted to practice taxi'ing around.. right turns, left turns, aborted take-offs, and so on. On one, well, I added a bit to much throttle and up she went. Well, I had it flying so I had to land it, right? So, I flew it around till I got up the nerve to take it in for an approach, which I did, and greased it in.. flawless landing right down the runway centerline.
Little did I know that I was so focused on flying the thing, I didn't hear the club President drive up and watch me.. right from just about the moment I took off till I landed it.
He ran up to me and yelled... "You solo'ed, I saw it!" and that was that.
Moral of the story is to stick with it and do what you have to do and don't push it until you are ready to solo. I can't complain about the results because in 11 years, I've only crashed three planes, and one was a junk S.P.A.D. Of the two other crashes, one was due to pushing myself in conditions that were beyond my abilities.. and the other, well, due to my stupidity at not raising the antenna.
Work at it and listen to your instructor. You picked a fine aircraft to learn with (one suggestion is to buy a second or third battery pack if you want more than one flight a day on the trainer).
Best of luck.
CGr.