Hey guys, I'm new to the thread... although I have spent alot of time reading in here lately.
I just re-set my entire Blade according to Bdavison's instructions, will get a chance to try it out later today.
2 things I noticed were definately out of whack on my heli were: the swashplate was a little less than the 1/2" noted and not level, and the flybar was not centered very well.
Other things I have done to try and make my Blade more beginner friendly are: adding flybar weights, and moving the servo links in 2 holes.

I started on a Venom Ocean Rescue about 2 months ago, and have been playing with the Blade CP Pro now for about 2 weeks (following the Radd's flight school webpages) I was just getting to the point where I could keep it in a sloppy tail-in hover in my living room. I'm hoping the setup work I did today will stabilize her a little better. Soon I am moving into a new house which has a large undeveloped basement which I am looking forward to... very little indoor room for me to practice in for now.
A big thanks to everyone who contributes to all the info found on sites like these! They were useful to me when I got into offroad r/c racing, and proving to be even more helpful now that I am getting into r/c flight![8D]