There are many excellent helis out there. All I can say is I started on a Caliber 30, did not have any instructor, went from a complete newbe, to little hops, to hovering , to forward flightwithout any crashes. The Caliber 30 comes with all the controll rod pre-cut to the propeer lengths, excellent instuctions. I used the Futaba 7C radio with eccpm set-up. The radio also comes with instructions specific to the Caliber. Also I would reccommend the heli-max training gear, but take it off as soon as yoour skill level allows. It induces some wobbling because of the extended legs.