I got my first RC heli when I was 16 years old. I worked all Summer to pay for it and built it in my free time. I crashed it in about 7 seconds. During that short flight, I nearly put it in three different trees (one of them more than once) and eventually crash landed into a pond. I say eventually because it was the longest 7 seconds of my life! To be fair, it was also more of a crash than a crash landing, although I did kind of decide to let it go in there because it seemed like a better option than the trees.
16 years on, and several thousands of pounds later, I still love the hobby. Eventually crashing becomes a rare event as long as you know your capabilities and the right pace at which to improve them. Patience makes the hobby a lot cheaper.
These days there are commercially available training skids, buddy box leads and computer simulators. It's relatively very cheap and easy to learn.