Hello Bill,

Welcome to the wild world of helicopters.

As a novice there is nothing that needs upgraded on the Raptor as it will do just fine for you right out of the box. Read up on some of the assembly procedures listed on the web and it will fly fine for you.

When you get more experience under your belt you can start adding upgrades. Some of us call crashes upgrade opportunities.

For now spend money on fuel and learn the helicopter. You'll have lots of time to upgrade it at a later date.

If you can find someone in your area that flies and have them go over the machine and help set it up properly. That will go a long way towards getting started with the machine.

Good luck and have fun with it.