I just noticed a couple people talk about the placement of the receivers on the airframes. I have learned where to install mine mostly by trial and error and some advice from highly qualified experienced RC pilots. I have learned the hard way that communication from your transmitter to your receiver is priority number one before anything else, if your gear isn't talking to each other consistently it causes problems that could be hard to diagnose especially for a beginner who doesn't know what to look for. As I am now an intermediate RC pilot I am still learning as well, so if anyone who has already posted in this chat has any information that both of us can learn from it will benefit me as a tip and help save a beginner as you clearly stated such as yourself. Long story short I have a history of going through many planes due to crashing thinking it was something I was doing wrong on the sticks really was technical issues with my Tx/Rx communication. To save you the same hard lessons it would make sense to help you out before you crash and trash a dozen planes before you figure it out on your own.
I do have a few things I look for such as:
1. Make sure that your receiver has radio transparency, meaning hiding your Rx in the airframe to maintain a clean look to your plane can be hazardous to your signal. Example, some people use aluminum tape to make windows or shiny metal panels on the outside of the fuselage to look cool, but if your Rx is in behind this metal shield it has the possibility of losing signal rendering your plane a lawn dart.
2. Try to isolate your receiver from other electronics. Motors, ESC's, and even batteries can play around with your signal just by being in the vicinity of your receiver. I like to keep the majority of my electronics up in the front of the fuselage and the receiver is placed in behind the wing near the bottom of the plane to keep it separate from electromagnetic interference. I also run the wire antenna's to the outside of the airframe to give it every possible chance to receive the signals from your transmitter.
3. The use of satellite receivers give your master receiver an extra set of ears, as it were, to help that if your plane gets into an orientation that could possibly block the signal to your master receiver there is a back up to keep things in check. A good tip would be that if you are using a satellite receiver along with the master you should have one placed so the antenna runs horizontal to the airframe and the other runs vertical to cover all bases.
This is just a few things that i have learned and I am open to learn more. There are people that don't have issues with what's called "Loss Of Signal" with minimal effort or thought into receiver placement and others who strive to make it a priority. I found as a beginner builder and pilot I started out not thinking it was important because its one of the last things you install in the plane and I tended to just stuff it in where ever it fit and chuck it into the air. After time and numerous trashed planes i got frustrated and wanted to give up on the hobby because I couldn't get anything to fly. I got even more frustrated watching others on YouTube or on these forums make flying look so easy, until someone mentioned the problem I might be having was loss of signal and explained it to me. Since then I paid attention to it and my flying learning curve has grown exponentially with a lot of success. Now I try to fly once or twice a day and I am confident I can fly anything I build.
So in conclusion, I just thought this would be a great opportunity for us both to learn, that's all.