So true DrunkYoda, I bought a CP Pro a few weeks ago and I have gone through three sets of blades, a fly bar, a tail rotor and a shear pin. This I consider not bad as i have had lots of close calls and tape the blades up until I cannot use them at all. I upgraded to the superskids and they look great and help lower the center of gravity getting a more stable hover but costing in flight time. I put on the extra counter weights and tried the flat blades but I find the stock syms work better for me. I can see now why the advice is to upgrade later as you will indeed need parts while learning and time while you decide if you will keep pouring money into this hobby. Even if I bought a trex to learn on the price would be high in repair, its the way it is, with helicopter, extra battery, wall charger, pitch gauge, training gear, upgrades and spare parts I'm into the CP Pro for $600 and I need blades again. Now I'm not saying its not fun hobby, as I learn it gets better, going through a battery or two without wiping out is a great feeling and going forward and back and doing stable hovers makes it all worthwhile. I pour through the forums for advice, practice on a sim and tried to follow radds method to catch on faster but I still find this harder than flying my electric planes. The most important thing I can tell you is that after a blade strike and you get a vibration take your time and go through all the checks in the trouble shooting guide on the bladecprepair site it makes all the difference. I also trimmed off 3/16 " off both sides of my tail rotor and have way less tail strikes as there is way more clearance. You just need to turn up the proportional pot a bit to compensate. I hope this helps, welcome aboard and good luck flying.