My guess is that you weren't wearing a hat! The standard hat at our field is the big Aussie type. If you get near the sun at least most of the glare won't be in your eyes. When I teach newbies, I insist that they wear a hat (I have spares in the van if they don't have one of their own) or they don't fly. With the large front area of the Aussie type hat you can also move your head up and down to bump flying bugs out of the way that are getting too close to your face. For a good ARF you have some nice choices. For low wings there is the CG Tiger, a CLoud Dancer, any of the 4* sizes, or an Avistar for an aerobatic high wing. Have fun, Fast!