RC Glider Flight

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Took the RC glider out for it's second flight.
"Wait, wasn't he just working on a drone?"
Yes, I was (still am). But I decided I should actually finish starting another hobby I started like seven years ago first. I've never flown RC planes or gliders, so it didn't go so well on the first flight, and I ended up crashing it immediately after takeoff. The damage wasn't catastrophic (you can see the squished nose in the video), but substantial enough to where I threw it in a box and left it sit to "get to later".
Fast forward to last week. I did a bunch of gluing, replaced a bad servo, even painted a few stripes on the top where I had taken of the now peeling-off decals. Determined, I tried again, and was barely able to get it to stay in the air for very long, only to have it almost crash again. I know the batteries were now old, so I replaced them. But I also looked on KZbin and found that I had been launching it incorrectly. I was expecting to just kind of push it forward in the air and have the throttle wide open to be able to push it into the air and start flying. Apparently, that's not how it works. These have a push-type of motor, and it's angled slightly downwards, so it wants to go in that direction with more throttle - slightly downwards. It only gains lift when it has enough speed, meaning you have to LAUNCH that thing, like a javelin, really putting some effort into the throw. As well, have to have it at only half-throttle at launch. Then you quickly grab your radio and pitch up and throttle up.
Another issue making things difficult was that the pitch was VERY twitchy, to the point of losing control with just the slightest amount of stick movement. Looking online it seems the plane is tail-heavy, and I have to put the CG slightly more forward, and maybe adjust the elevator rates as well. Also, it turns out I had the aileron control rods in slightly different positions, making the plane want to turn more in one direction but less in the other. Along with fighting those issues the entire time, I was battling the little bit of wind as well. I ended up semi-crashing on the second flight, but thankfully the only the damage was the plastic canopy popping off. I was able to pull off a loop though, so in all I'll call it a win.
I'm thankful I've had PC simulators to learn how to fly these things from a third-person point of view. Being able to control the plane when it's pointed at you takes some time to get used to, since your left and right are "reversed" so to speak. I have no idea how people managed to fly these things before there were simulators without spending a fortune on repairs.