Hi, Not going to be much help. I don't know what kind of heli it is. As for the value, it looks pretty old which makes it not worth much unless you like collecting old helis. The main problem would be finding parts for it. Secondly for learning, it won't fly nearly as well as the newer helis with the better electronics that are avaliable today. Also it is a very unsafe bird in it's current form, plastic clevis', z-bends and ez-links are not to be used on the control surfaces of a heli. Personally, I wouldn't take it for free. It would cost more to get it flying then buying a Knight, kinitic, Raptor or T-rex. Those are all good 50 size helis that you could learn with and parts are easy to find and cheap. They aren't listed in any special order and there are others but that will give you something to look at instead of that heli.