I know exactly what you're experiencing. I was in the same boat in January, but here it is Feb 6th and I'm managing to hover like a well trained novice. Yes, getting it off the ground helps and maybe adding a bit of right trim on there right stick would help as well. That whole drifting left thing is because of the force of the tail rotor. In a stable hover, the heli will be leaning to the right, so don't freak out when you see that. Also the heli may have a tendency to dip a bit when you're moving around (especially left or right) so having a bit of altitude is good, but it is possible to hover only 6 inches off the ground and learn as well. Plus at any height it is possible to panic or make a mistake so it's great to have the traingin gear on to help you from smashing into the ground too much. In the end, either way, you going to crash and break stuff, so you might as well have as much help as possible. Use the gear.