ORIGINAL: Loswave
I learned to hover at about 1 and a half feet off the ground, which is ground effect, and will make it more dificult to hover, but keeps you from breaking parts.
This may be a bit nit-picky, but you are just outside of ground effect:
Hovering in Ground Effect
When a helicopter is within about one-half its rotor span above the ground it is generally considered to be hovering in ground effect. At this low altitude, the helicopter experiences an increase in performance. The ground reduces the vortices coming off the rotor blade tips, reducing induced drag.
At the same time, air sucked into the rotor disk from above accelerates downward and hits the ground. Because the ground prevents the air from getting out of the way quickly, the air can't accelerate as rapidly as it does when the helicopter hovers at a higher altitude. This slower induced flow doesn't reduce the angle of attack of the rotor blades as much as it does in a hover at higher altitude, and the rotor can provide more lift at a given power (collective) setting
So 1-1/2 feet off the ground is just a bit out of ground effect - not much, that's why I said this was kind nit-picky...
Gary