That would be the servos from E-flight. From what I hear, they suck something terrible. You may need a new one.

As for flying it, when people say it's stable enough to set the remote down, I think it's more of a figure of speech. With the larger heli's, you need to be on your toes all the time just to keep it in the air. With the sr, you can relax a bit. I would just start by hovering close to the ground until you are comfortable with it. I have the 120 sr and I can tell you it's a lit easier to fly than it's big brothers. And I went from the Blade cx to that one. Just take it easy and don't get frustrated.

And if I may suggest something, learn to get good at hovering with the tail pointing towards you first. That helped me quite a bit.