Learning to Fly by a complete novice

[lnuss]

Since seeing your post above, I took a look at See How it Flies (I'd never heard of it before) and it does have a lot of good information, but in spite of disclaimers in the text, in the first section he is sounding a lot like an engineer trying to get his point across with a mixture of lay terms and engineering terms, and I'm having a little trouble following some of what he says, though if I went back through it a time or two I'd probably nail it down. He, at least some times, uses "energy" in a similar sense to the way Wolfgang uses the term "buoyancy."

So in that first section I much prefer the style Wolfgang uses vs. the one jsd uses. However, I'm not going to go through the whole thing at this point. A quick look at the TOC shows:
Airspeed Is Related to Angle of Attack

so I naturally had to take a glance. This caught my eye:

I have mentioned that the trim wheel really controls angle of attack but to a good approximation controls airspeed.

He's misleading the reader a bit there, since the trim tab controls the elevator (or stabilator), which in turn controls angle of attack. Why is he talking about the trim wheel (it may not be a wheel at all) when it is NOT the thing you use to fly the airplane? It's only there to take pressure off the pilot's hand and feet.

So from my admittedly preliminary look, I'm not impressed, and I'll continue to recommend Stick And Rudder.

[HAPPYDAN]

Well, Mikiko, there ain't any simulator that will compare to the feeling you will get actually flying the airplane. So look up a local flight school, schedule a "Discovery Flight" and go have some fun. Health is not an issue, as the CFI will have it under control. And you won't miss the money but you'll always have the experience.