I'm a newbie too but can do 3D on the sim and control my heli with no problems. Keeping it high is ok, but realize that you can easily lose orientation if too far out OR too high. My best advice to you is to keep it about waist high, land with the tail toward you, and land it with the front part of the skids touching down and then reduce throttle totally. I used to have trouble with the tail touching down first and cutting grass with the rotor, but since landing with the front of the skids touching first, no more problems! My worst crash (and only one) was sitting on the ground! I had my head speed up a little too high and looked down at my timer and then heard the main blades striking the ground. It was so light on the skids that a puff of wind was all it took to tip it over. Hope this is some help to you! Oh, by the way, if you have any trouble with "floaters" in your eyes, be very careful about looking at a bright background. I had a big floater move over the heli and could not make out what it was doing (up high again) and I had one of my buddies standing close by land it for me. Went to the doctor and my first eye operation is next Tuesday! Had another problem altogether that I didn't even know about.