yes yes and yes, first rc I had was a plane when I was 18 and it went up, stopped and came down hard and that was the end of that, 3 weeks to build and 20 sec to destroy.
Then many years later a mate got a two channel toy heli, so much fun I had to have one, best 17 pounds I've spent, the heli bug bit hard and after hunderds of flights it died, my next step was a heli with more control, so next was a walkera 60b, another mate saw the fun I was having trying to get to grips with it in the local hall and asked me what I thought was the best heli for him, I knew my 60b was not the one, you crash a 60 even a miner prang you will have to fix it even if it' just the blades, so I recommended the Walkera 4, and have to say it survives a lot of crashs, with the odd replacement tale blade and servo,
We like helis cos you can fly them any where, we aren't in to clubs, to much fuss and traveling, I fly in the garden and the hall, my mate flys in the car park and hall,
Yes it's a steap learning curve but alot of fun, that's the bit we like about heli's,
15 years ago there was'nt 450 size electeric heli's to learn with, and the heli's what were around were so much more money than now, and not the sort of thing you would crash and carry on flying after a quick visual check,
You had to be a member of a club, but not any more,