[BrianG]

Personally, it sounds like a setting with the radio. On a Spektrum, when you bind the receiver to the transmitter, you have to hold the steering and throttle to the positions you want when/if the receiver loses signal (fail safe operation). When you plug in the receiver without the transmitter on first, the receiver will be in this fail safe mode until the transmitter is turned on and will force the throttle/steering to the positions you had when binding. So, even if you have the ESC programmed right, it will still do this unless you make sure your transmitter is on first.

Not sure if this is the problem in your case, but something you might want to look at.