My blades chipped after the first few minor tip overs and I repaired them with Packaging tape. As far as blade crack performance, I did see a difference but if your pretty good at hovering then you can handle it but there's nothing like new blades. Now as far as you not being able to hover it, you might want to check and see if everything is in trim. I recieved a Blade CP on xmas and I am totally new HELICOPTERS but I am pretty advanced in airplanes, and now I am able to do very very stable 10ft hovers with my BCP, Like (rjm1982) said, you need to get about 12 inches off the ground in order to achieve a pretty stable hover, when flying under those specs it will tend to move all over the place due to (GROUND EFFECT). Please note I am a total newbie to helicopters also , but my advice is keep practicing and think of the heli's blade as a big PLATE spinning on a needle and your basically trying to keep it stable. So pretty much controlling the main blades is the whole part of hovering a heli. As far as tail movement, I would suggest increasing the GAIN so that the tail is much more stiff and doesn't sway when trying to hover. Read the owners manual, it has some great tips, also check out this website as far as trimming everything out>> www.bladecprepair.com