There were quite a few people who tried to scare me into having someone else do the first flight on the craft, get it real high and then let me takeover. Other's gave me the "***?" look and then tried to scare me out of flying by myself. Just take your time. Go download the X-plane demo (www.x-plane.com, if you like it, buy it). It has an RC airplane mode. The RC airplane, when you fly it, is very jerky. Very, very fast to react to your inputs. The glider, despite its size and relative slowness (it gets cookin' downwind), can be very snappy and requires smooth inputs. It seems that rarely should you ever need to move the stick fully in any direction. My one trip down the side of the mountain was caused by getting scared and jerking the stick around. The time the airplane almost took my head off was caused by me losing the planes bearing and not realizing it was coming in not going out. These are things you can see in the simulator.

I think the most important step in my learning to fly was my trip to the big grass field. Running with the airplane in my hand was a great way to feel what it takes and see how it flys. Doing very gentle tosses and catching it (radio in left hand with thumb on stick -just- in case) were also important. Finally giving it a toss and watching in amazement at how far it flew on its own. All of that before heading up to the ridge. I think being on wet grass (think morning dew or foggy san francisco) also helped. My landings were very smooth and the glider seemed to skate across the grass before stopping. I think I'll end up doing this with all of my planes in the future.

I think you should take most of my advice with a grain of salt. Much of it could be coincedence. The next time I take the plane out I may crash it on successive attempts. I could have just been lucky. I definitely have a lot to learn and a ton of experience to gain. But I can't wait to do it :-)