Thank you for the welcome back.
I do like some of the Spektrum "Smart" techknowledgy i.e. batteries and chargers.
Sorry to say but I found the Spektrum files were very confusing to me. Using the timber X night for example, when binding, I didn't know which of the many files to use as they were abstract, and I couldn't find a simple explanation to each. Caused many needless crashes. The motor turned backward sometimes and sometimes not. No one at the field could figure it out. It turned out to be the wrong file for what I needed. No explanation of what switches do what. Sorry to say, if I were to do it all over again, I would go with the good old standby "Futaba" I am sure other manufactures will incorporate much of Spektrum's Techknowledgy that will be much more user friendly. I realize much of this is my lack of grasping the new tech stuff. In my case, I would have been much better staying with the non-tech stuff since it has been at least 20 years since I have flown.
Finally, after mostly crashed flights, I am just now getting a bit more comfortable with everything.
Sorry to hear about your crashes…If you have one of the AR636 type receivers on board, it may be a orientation issue. From what I’ve seen (for foamies), they are often pre-mounted for proper orientation to help the gyro act accordingly. I’m not too familiar with the flight files Spektrum has, I usually just bind the airplane up by the manual process (to have SAFE or no SAFE). Then work from there. I had a Sukhoi SU-29mm crash on the maiden flight because of the gyro from what I could tell. Tried to take a wide turn and completely lost it. Went spiraling down low and hit a tree at nearly full throttle (maybe full throttle). It hurt the plane of course, but I got it fixed to fly again. Ultimately I was glad it never hurt anyone, and didn’t hit the nearby creek.
With the motor running backwards, that sounds like more of a esc issue. Might need to swap one of the 3 leads for the motor to the opposite side of the esc to get it going the right direction. I could be wrong, but that’d be my first guess.
As far as what switches do what, for the 2-position and 3-position toggle switches, every airplane is different. But you should be able to re-assign them how you like from inside the radio. I’ve had to do it many times to make things more comfortable from a pilots standpoint. Just make sure if you move the switches that everything is moving the right direction; And inhibit the switches your not using.
On a side note - if you have realflight 9 or 9.5, the timber X is on there to experiment with different setups. And If your looking for someone to fly with, I’d be glad to join you on the simulator sometime.