Bit of a thread jack I suppose (maybe not...I guess this might be something beginners do...) but, CGR, I absolutely MUST agree with you.

People that clog up the runway just absolutely get on my last nerve. One guy in particular comes to mind at my field.

This fellow has been flying for several years...I've seen him land everything from a trainer to deadsticking a several thousand dollar giant scale. He's a very competant pilot. But let someone decide to prepare for a take off, and suddenly, he's got all KINDS of trouble making a landing...makes 6-8 approaches and then says 'oh, sorry...need to go around...came in a little hot/slow/offline/turned around/disoriented/uncomfortable/_____ on that one"

I mean..ok...we all have approaches that aren't up to snuff...and we all wave them off (or at least later wish we had) and go around for another try. But it's becoming OBVIOUS with this guy. He almost NEVER botches an approach, and on the rare occaision he does, not ONCE have I seen him botch 2 in a row. But by golly, let someone be waiting to take off, and he'll make 7.

I guess that'd be what I'd offer as a 'beginner mistake'. If you wanna practice approaches, or do touch and go's, or work on taxi skills...whatever...fine. They are valuable skills to learn. But please do so when you're not sharing the field with another pilot. IMO, if anyone else is in the air, or waiting to get there, then get your plane on/off the ground as smartly as you can (don't, of course, risk your plane or spectators doing so) and leave the runway open for takeoffs and landings.

1 of the worst 1s is when the plane is comming towards u upside down at a long distance away....(so dont go 2 far out)

Oh Man The worst Mistake Most People Make Is Thinking Oh 've used Boats or just being over confident because they flown before. So The Buy A HARD to fly airplane and fly it and crash it. Then The Throw an anger fit and they leave the hobby in bout 30 seconds.Also Pre-Flight dCheck Surfaces Check Again Check Battery Motor (in case of glow fuel in tank) Motor Connections Every Little Detail But Without Rmoving Your Wing And Electronics of course Just To let you know i'm an electric flyer 8 months flying and flying like really hard to fly planes some times. So Heed My Advice Another Thing If You Buy An RTF From Like PARKZone Don'tExpect You Can Fly it from the manual and video i crashed mine first flight it never really worked good enough for me to learn
More Mistakes Still When You Come into Land At My Field We Can Stand On The Runway But don't and also Keep Your Final Turn Slow High But Still Low and little Bit Out To Close You Turn To Fast Like YesterDay Someone Trashed A Brand New Kadet EP40 By Turning it to fast on final it flipped over and span around and wacked the ground and the wing was totaled. In Bout a 1/2 second or less. Alos this has also been stated but everything you buy will somethime break or crash you might break a servo rx motor but just to let you know dying really cuts into your flying time [&o] Blow Your airplane to bits if you have to but if your kill someone or yourself you'll be sued or dead
Just To LEt You Know Bad Thing either one

Im 14 , got my wings last year, learnt a few things

1) The engine WONT start without the glow driver
2) Watch the prop when killing the engine ( Caught my finger, pretty good cut)
3) Extend Your Antenna fully Before taking off
4)USE LOTS OF ELASTIC BANDS ( Used about 8 on my LT-40, slow control response, wouldnt pull out of a loop till last second)

I have taught a few people since I received my instructor rating. The most common mistakes I have seen are.

Rolling the wrong way. A lot of students have admitted to me that sometime they don't know which way to roll so they will guess and if they are wrong they will just roll the other direction.

Landing too fast or slow. Usually they are too fast, I think this is a safety thing.

Landing a long way away. About 90% of my students landings are on the far side of the runway.

Flying over their head. The easiest way to become disoriented.

Other mistakes that I saw this past weekend. We had 4 students and were doing a sorta groundschool. One thing that I happended to mention was - Don't panic when somthing happens - try to fly the plane home. Little did I know those words would be so true. About five minutes later, I'm doing a hard snap roll to the left, when the Twist breaks loose to the right and going down. I started to fight to gain control and thought that I was getting a radio "hit". I got lucky and got the plane to to a level attitude and began fighting her back towards the runway. It was still acting bad, I still thought I was getting "hit". Now, the rest of the club is yelling to stay with the plane - NO DUH!! Finally, I get the plane over the runway and everyone notices the right aileron is flapping around in the wind. No wonder the plane is flying like crap. NOTE to self - teach students how to use rudder!! I get the Twist down in one piece and breath a sigh of relief. Turns out the linkage from the servo had come off - 2 minutes later - everything is fixed and I'm flying again. Lesson learned when teaching new students - Do Not Panic and Fly the Plane, Use that rudder, and FLY THE PLANE!!!!

Whoa! bassfisher, good job on that landing, just the thought of the situation made me sweat ditto on using the rudder. I use it a LOT

I'm heading out to the field tomorrow, for the first time in years, and the one thing I remember from my old experience is ringing in my head. My old instructor told me, "The only thing I can promise is I'll be here to help no matter what happens." The common mistake here is forgetting your instructors are human too. [8D]

Greg S