Some tips for first time pilots.

After you are done playing with the cheap toy's, ie. 50.00 and under, get a high wing, traditionally designed, simple 3 channel plane, preferably something that's slow with a regular rudder/stabalizer. The idea behind that is to let you make corrections prior to it plummeting to the ground. The first launch should be on a windless day, if there are some gusts, be sure you are down wind of the plane in case it catches it, it will come your direction, it's alot harder to fight against the wind after it's caught hold, don't worry about where it's going as long as it's gently going upwards on the initial launch, get some altitude before you start making turns. When you make a turn, just nudge it in short increments, do NOT bury the stick in any direction at any time, just give it a little tap, letting it auto correct itself to be flat and level before you nudge it again in the direction you want it to go, it will take several nudges before it has made a complete turn, so be sure you are at the largest possible field you can find.

Keep the throttle down to a minimum, only kicking it in full power for it's initial launch, giving it a little more juice should it have to break through a gust, but the idea is to keep it as slow as possible without it stalling. If it starts to get out of control, release the sticks, hopefully you have enough altitude to let it auto correct itself, the most common mistake is over compensating, a well designed trainer plane will know it's own center or gravity and will want to level out on it's own, if you are finding yourself having to make constant adjustments, you should either make sure the plane was assembled correctly, or re-evaulate what you are flying in the first place, it's supposed to be a gentle fly, not white knuckle.

Along landing, most of the time it will be non powered, save a little juice for emergency, the sims do a great job in this area with the gliders, you get a good feel for unpowered landings by just keeping those in the air without stalling, you will be wanting to do the same on your's, where it will be just a few simple nudges to the elevator to keep it level, if you put in too much elevator, it will do the familar, roll a coaster, series of sweeping droops.

When you are 15-20 feet off of the ground, there is no more room for turning, so where it's pointing is where it's going to be landing, if it's going the wrong direction, get some altitude "at least 50 feet" to make corrections and reaproach the landing strip, always make sure the prop is not spinning as you land in order to minimize damage.

As stated above with the plane auto leveling, the plane should fly by itself, with a minimum of input from the controls, as long as you can keep that in mind, you will find it to be much less stressful then originally planned, most of these trainers just like to fly on their own, some be it too well when they get caught up in a thermal, but the idea behind it is that you are trying to gently nudge it around, not force it.