I switched from charcoal to wood a few years ago, so I'll share my tips:
1)Keep your logs small. The bandera has a small firebox, and if you throw regular fireplace size logs in there, you'll get big spikes in temp. Also, the larger the wood chunk the harder it is to ignite. You don't want your wood smoldering before it ignites, it should just burst into flames. When I get my wood, I use a chain saw and try to cut them into about 8 to 10 inch slices, then I split that into four chunks. It's also much easier to control temps. This is about the size I use:
2)Preheat your wood. The bandera firebox has a nice flat top, perfect for preheating about 4 pieces of wood at a time. When it's time to add wood, use the chunk that's been on the firebox the longest. All the wood you add should just burst into flames, not smolder. You'll have to turn your wood occasionally, they can get hot enough to actually burst into flames.
3)Make sure your wood is not wet! It doesn't take much moisture to screw it up. If you hear your wood hissing and steaming when it's heating up, you have too much moisture. While it won't ruin your que, it will be a big pain to control your temps, since you have to keep your fire extra hot to ignite those wet chunks.
4)Bbqchef's rock mod. Use a rock to prop open your firebox when you need to vent some heat. Use it on the right side of the firebox, so the farther back you place the rock the more lid is open. I use this whenver I add wood. I add wood, then prop the lid a bit and watch my temps. If they continue to spike, I prop open the lid a bit more until temps are stable. Once the temp spike is over, I close the lid again. Bbqchef's rock mod in action (and notice the wood preheating on top):
5) Keep your dampers open. You're exhaust vent should always be wide open, and don't close your inlet vent more than half way, if at all. Control your temps by using small fires, not by dampening the chamber. You want small, hot fires with lots of air circulation, this will keep creosote down to a minimum. If your food ever tastes bitter, you've had too much creosote built up due to poorly circulated fires that smoldered.
6)Cheat when starting a fire. Purists belive in starting a fire from kindling, but I say screw that. I just fire up a chimney of charcoal, throw it in the firebox and use that to ignite my first batch of wood. I always have plenty of charcoal around for my grill anyway. If it's a cold, windy day, you might have to get a pretty good fire going to get your bandera up to temp. After that, you can back off on the size of the fire.
Once you get a few wood fires under your belt, you'll wonder why you ever used charcoal. Use small wood chunks, keep your fires small and hot with lots of circulation, and you can't go wrong.