Thanks for your input. My interest in a large heli is purely commercial as a camera platform. All I need to do is take off, take it to a point in the sky, switch on Co-pilot (?) stabilization and take photos and then land without breaking it. I recognize that the last is certainly the hardest maneuver. I have no interest in any aerobatic maneuver of any kind. It is really like getting a big plane and learning to fly it around only in circles. I can't see that it can be that hard. I also assume that the larger the chopper the easier they are to fly, just like fixed wing aircraft. It's not that I am trying to justify paying out $3000 up front (I am, after all, married.) Everyone has told me that the micro choppers are really hard to fly in comparison to bigger ones. Also it is logical that any chopper that is designed to do 3D is certainly going to be a handfull up front as they are likely to be inherently unstable. It would seem that most choppers are designed and set up for the 3D flyer. I just wonder what is the point of learning to fly a (full scale) F16 if your intention is to fly Piper Cubs.

Here is my point. If I get a chopper designed up-front to be a wild ride and get totally frustrated trying to learn to fly something I don't need, I may never learn to fly one safely while I could always have learned to fly a stable camera platform quite adequately. Sure a 3D pilot can always fly the camera platform, but do you really need that same 3D pilot capaibility to do it?