Hello,

Congratulations with your new gift. Helicopter models are tricky, difficult, prone to crashes, beset with all sorts of trimming problems which can be hard to figure out. If you're not prepared to put quite some time and a fair amount of money into it - forget about about and do something else. The money is needed for spare parts, upgrades and the helicopter number two which you will soon decide you need badly...Money is also required for auxiliary equipment (extra battery packs, a better charger, training gear, tools, special tools like e.g. a pitch gauge etc.)

RADD's school of rotary flight is great - consult that. I can also recommend Electric helicopters beginners guide (should be easy to google).

By their very nature helicopters are dynamically unstable, i.e. they will not stay a course not to mention staying in hover, they can move in all directions and require CONSTANT use of the controls. While a RC plane might be said to require effort to crash a helicopters requires a lot of effort not to crash.

Good luck,
Bing117 (a Danish heli newbie still trying to hit his first decent hover - pictures of my second heli attached)