Learning to Fly

I spent the morning teaching a good mate and his dad to fly (model aircraft that is). Being fresh in my mind I thought I'd share some tips to try and make RC flying easier - particularly for the beginner.
1) Have an experienced instructor along with you
2) Fly in an area with plenty of open space - most of my crashes have been because I have been confined to an area which was too small
3) Fly high - don't start out low level flying it is too hazardous and doesn't allow you time to react - try to fly between 50-150m
4) Have a second person as a spotter in case you loose sight of the plane momentarily (this is an emergency thing)
5) Take off into wind, land into wind
6) Don't fly in front of the sun - it will blind you and you will loose sight of the plane
7) Don't fly until you have tested all the controls on the ground - ensure they are not reversed! and that you are comfortable with the configuration. (I have throttle on left stick, rudder and elevator on right stick) - If I had ailerons, these would displace the rudder on the right stick
8) Do a range test on the ground - do the controls work from 20m with the aerial fully down (not extended)?
9) Wear a hat and sunglasses
10) Don't take on the wind - if it is too windy (more than a light breeze for inexperienced pilots) save your plane for a less windy day
11) Stay away from trees - they are not friendly to planes (as a side issue a weight with fishing line then tied to a heavy rope generally works for getting them down).