Congradulations to all us self taught RCers. I've been doing it for about 4 years now and it may not be the recommended way to go BUT... If you have a certain amount of common sense and take precautions with where you fly I see no reason not to give it a shot solo. Download FMS (Flying Model Simulator) or get the sim off Ebay, with the controller for like $20 + shipping and pracitce a lot. I used a game controller (PS2 style) when I was starting out and flying my Hobbico Skyfly (tough little 3 channel and cheap, the Skyfly 2 is even better and worth the extra $). I had a few crashes with that but nothing really bad. Now have Real Flight G4.5 and that controller. The $200 there almost went into another model but now I have a bunch of models I can try to fly and work on my skills. The toughest part is training your brain to recognize which direction to move the control surfaces in referance to the airplane's direction of travel from your position. Inverted makes this even more fun. Being someone who likes realism,I wanted a 4-channel right off the bat and was worried the 3 channel would become boring way too fast (no ailerons), but I was wrong and still today fly it even though I have a 4-channel that is fully aerobatic. It fits the bill for learning the same way a .22 rifle does for shooting and the Kawasaki Ninja 250 does for motorcycles. You can't go wrong buying one...

Visiting the forums today after a long absence because:
Went to my first RC airshow yesterday and got pumped to spend some more time with my planes. There are some truly talented people out there that can make a pile of balsa/foam/etc. and some electronics dance around the sky. My hat was off to them.