400 degrees seems way too high. I usually put a bit of butter in the cold skillet and wait until it's sizzling nicely, then pour in the pancake batter. It definitely should start to firm up well before it burns. (And as was already mentioned, the first pancake always comes out weird/wrong. I don't know why, I just feed it to the dog.)

You might try practicing with silver dollar pancakes, as being smaller they set up and are flipable faster.