ORIGINAL: Silversurfer

I remember someone once providing an answer when another person asked him to teach them how to hover. The answer applies to all the rest as well. Essentially it came down to burning lots and lots of gas in practice, practice, practice, and more practice. Once you have it all down, go out and practice some more. A little bit every day beats a whole bunch in one day.

A little tip on learning to hover. The wind can be a great assist if you're willing to use it. Put the nose of the plane into the wind and let the plane "lean" into it. Concentrate on just holding the plane's nose up and letting the wind push it back a little. Learn the moves necessary to hold the wings level and the tail in a steady position, gradually learning to use the throttle to hold position against the wind. The more of this you do the easier it will be later ease the plane into a more vertical position.

As for Walls, Elevators, Harriers, and Waterfalls, the more abrubt the control input, the slower the plane is moving, or when using maximum surface deflections, the more important the use of rudder becomes. That's why so many of the IMAC and Pattern contest flyers turn into the best 3D flyers. They understand and use the left thumb, and practice, practice, practice.