Whew! First few flights:

1) Way too much up elevator, and it basically went straight up about 20 feet before I could level it out. One good circle, then I got a bit too low. I managed to pull the nose up before it hit ground, and it skidded nicely along the grass for a few feet before stopping.

2) Good launch, one circle, then the wind started picking up and it crashed not too much harder than the first landing, but I got some nice dirt stains on the nose.

3) The wind was definitely starting to be a factor here: I got some good height, but the wind started carrying it away sideways. I expect someone better at flying than me could have brought it down better, or even just kept it in the air, but I brought it down. Still, it landed belly-down, with most of the impact on the tail, so I'll call it a passable landing.

4) Ouch. The wind died down almost entirely, so I launched, and it flew beautifully for about five minutes. A couple of big circles around the field, and I started getting some decent altitude. Then the wind decided I'd gotten a bit too cocky, and one enormous gust pulled the hatch over the battery and electronics completely off, flipped the plane, and slammed it straight down, upside down and nose first, about forty feet down straight into the ground. Oops. The battery, unfortunately, appears to have come loose before it hit the ground, and yanked a bunch of the electronics apart: the on/off switch was completely destroyed, and the motor came completely unplugged from the ESC. Also, the nose broke off the plane, and the rudder broke off near the base, where the push-rod connects.

Given that the on/off was fairly defective to begin with, I've pulled it out of the circuit entirely. Right now if the battery is plugged in, the plane is live, though the reset button still keeps the motor out of the circuit until it's pressed. I'll probably put in a replacement switch eventually, but for now it's fine. I was able to hot-glue and pin it all back together (toothpicks worked wonders...), and it should be ready to fly again as soon as the wind dies down.

Not bad for a first few flights, really!