you should definantly practice on a sim first. everyone needs to learn how heli's fly before they attempt solo real life learning.

but that said, you are still going to crash. even though i can cruising around my house now easily, everyonce in a while i mess up and crash. fp is way easier and cheaper than CP would be. until you can fly safely 100percent of the time, FP will always be cheaper. and once you get the hang of the heli you will see it's not really hard to control in GE. it is just confusing at first.