ORIGINAL: WhtBronco
Well there are a few issues withe the SE for a beginner. Mostly parts are more expensive and you are much more likely to strip the servo gears if the rotor blades touch the ground. Metal gear servos reduce this risk great though, such as the Hitec HS-65MG.
Otherwise it's a good choice. I had to upgrade my XL HDE to erverything metal from the swash up due to breaking parts in flight, not resutling in crashes thankfully. I would suggest that you get plastic main rotor blade grips rather than the metal ones the SE comes with. These will often break and save carbon fiber rotor blades. There is no performance difference between the metal grips and the plastic grips.
Probably not a good idea for a newbie to be using carbon blades at all to start with, a better idea would be 315 woodies to learn on.
About 12 bucks or so for them as compared to 20 to 40 bucks for carbons. (depending on the brand name.
Carbons can cause lots of damage to the heli itself, or anything they may hit due to their stiffness. Not to mention that the carbons are stiff enough to take out the plastic grips.
Just remember with the woodies, if they hit anything and scrape up the plastic coating, throw them out. (there are tiny metal rods in them for weight).
I found that out first hand when I spooled up and one of the rods whizzed past me, bouncing off the side of my house.
For what its worth......."I wish I had gone SE"