I learned to fly without help from anybody else. Followed radds and Finless Bob's videos. While some pilots are super anal about how their helis are set up, a lot of guys are just "hey, if it will lift off, I can make it fly," so flying with someone who's more experienced doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to learn best practices. I do 95% of my flying in my own yard. While I would like to eventually buy either a 600 size electric, or 90 size nitro, I bet I will still fly my T-Rex 450 the most.