I’ve been reading around and piecing everything together, so I have a basic idea of what I should be doing.
However, I find that I keep running out of air, esspecially when playing in the second octave. And when I drop down from a high octave note to a low octave note, I completley lose my tone 
Is a change in embouchure necessary for the transition between octaves?
And what should I be doing differently to prevent running out of breath so quickly?
Thanks
If you havn’t done much with just the head joint alone try working with this first. Move your lips around and tighten/ losen them, change the air speed, consentrate and then widen the air stream, roll the head in and out. Check in the mirror as you do.See that your lips are centred. There is a slight change of ebouchure from 1st to 2nd octave, but the head joint should get you able to do this without having to think too much. Blow 1st and second octave onthe headjoint. You might find you can get a third register high note as well. Find the sweet spot. Play with it the HJ. See what happens. Put your finger in/out of the HJ and cover the end with your hand. This should give you a good idea and is really helpfull as you develop your tone. Change everything you can think of but only change one thing at a time to see the effect. Work on being able to get a good steady tone in 1st and 2nd registers. Only when you can do this fairly easily are you really ready to assemble the full flute.
Good luck
Kevin
Oh and when you get the embouchure right a good tone wont need much air. Some of your tone will develop as the lips get stronger over time.
Kevin
If you can, try to get a couple of lessons with a good flute teacher to start things off right. He or she could probably tell you what changes to begin with, and suggest some exercises to build your strength.
Lack of breath usually comes from an incorrect or weak embouchure. Once you get some good ideas to work on, embouchure development is a matter of proper practice and time. Occasionally quite some time. You will probably discover after a while that you have some better days than others. Keep plugging away, and the bad days get fewer. Once you have the mechanics down, it’s a matter of building up your chops, which takes time.
These might help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQg0vScnQ8E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcXRzZZv1mE&feature=related
I think there are more, but I don’t have time right now to search them all out. It’s a start.
Clark
if ya just cut and paste the “Sir James Galway Masterclass” from the heading to the search… 
Thankyou very much for your advice.
The Sir James Galway videos were excellent, I never would have thought to do that.
I feel like my tone is already smoother, and it really does take less air. Now I’ve only been able to do this for about 15 minutes
, so now comes the many long hours of practice.
Its funny, now when I play, it does’nt make me want to bash the flute against the wall. 
Give yourself time.
Yeah, dig into those Galway vids. There’s eatin’ and drinkin’ in 'em, as the saying goes. Cheers,
Rob