One thing I think important for both a success and safety is to establish a ritual and do not deviate from it without careful thought and consideration. If you figure out what to do and do it the same way every time you will fly well and safely. If anything happens to upset your ritual, back off and think before acting.

To give an example. I had been flying a CL stunt airplane off a stooge. It had an inverted engine and after I started it, I would walk around behind the wing and reach under and remove the glow plug clip. No problem. Friend came out and held the airplane for me. He was exactly where I was used to going to remove the glowplug clip. So I reached for it though the prop. Fortunately it didn't cut me up too bad. If I had considered the matter, I could have walked around to the other side of the airplane and removed the clip from behind with my left hand. No problem.