Same here. But it doesn't make him a prodigy at all, quite the opposite.
Cleo is the prodigy. Especially considering her young age, when she gets the willpower to do it, she is a beast. Possibly right behind Zess in terms of skill. She admitted she's not skilled or calm enough to handle delicate operations like saving Zess, but she can push a golem to its limits and is tactically minded enough to cause a great deal of chaos. They said last episode that it took most of their group over month (Zess a week) to learn how to consistently operate their new, complicated golems. Cleo took a day. We will see how this new red-haired guy compares.
Rygart is an idiot. He was using barely 3% of the black golem's skill in the first episode, and not a whole hell of a lot has changed. He only accidentally turned off the stability control. If he learned to use the foot pedals, he could leave it off most of the time, and gain substantial maneuverability. That black golem could utterly annihilate anything or anyone if used to full capacity. If Narvi, Zess, Cleo, the generals or even this new red-haired guy could use it, they could win each skirmish of the war singlehandedly, limited only by the operational time of the unit.
I like that he's incompetent. What other outcome could you expect from someone using ancient technology where the control systems manual has to be reverse-engineered by the smartest person in the kingdom (Sigyn), piloted by a person who has literally no concept of how the world's technology operates, and who has never used anything beyond simple machines and hand tools?