Abram,

Welcome to RC Universe and the wonderful world of helicopters.

There are several sites with good beginner information for you and I'm sure someone will post them here for you. I would but am not on my main computer where I have them located.

You don't need an instructor to teach you to hover but, the drive to him to have him look over the machine and test fly it would be well worth your time.

I learned myself and it was a bear not knowing if the heli was set up properly. It will save you much time and frustration to find someone to check over the setup and look for problems. It's also good to get with someone the first time to fly the machine and trim it for you and explain what he is doing and why.

There is a lot to setting one of these up properly and a poor setup will cause you lots of grief when trying to hover it.