Mark,
I started flying helis after Christmas 2013 - got two rebranded V911s on closeout from Radio Shack. I wanted something to fly when there was not enough wind to play with my quad-line sports kites (Revolution). I guess 4 years experience with the quad-line kites helped me, because after 3 1/2 months now, I can fly my V911s through a beer-case box (bottom cut out) most of the time. I'm now working on doing that while flying toward me.

Interestingly, both the quad kites and the helis have similar learning curves and methods. HOVER, HOVER, HOVER in all orientations. Once you master that, your body will be automatically responding to make the proper correction to hold the hover. It's called "muscle memory", and I like to compare it to the amount of thought you need to give to walking - the actions became automatic when you were a child.

Another similarity is hovering or flying a quad-line kite inverted and flying a heli toward you. Some control actions are reversed. For some time, you will think it is not possible to think of the necessary corrections, and then mentally reverse the correction and then ask your body to apply the reversed correction. You are right - you cannot do it all consciously. But, practice, practice, practice, and the reversed controls also become automatic and natural. I've been there for several years with the kites, but am just starting to make progress with the heli.

Keep at it. The V911 is a great inexpensive heli to learn on and gets more fun as you improve. I promise, one day part will CLICK and you will feel great. Then you can tackle the next capability.

Hover, Hover, Hover - tail-in, sideways, finally tail-out.

Check out http://www.rchelicopterfun.com/ for some great progressive tutorials.

-Howard