Flight sim first

The best thing any beginner could do is practice on a flight sim. Reading every thing on the subject is also good, find books on aerodynamics and under stand the phisics of flight.
A good free sim is FMS, it is avalable as a download form www.caiman.us-
caiman is a freeware gameing site that has a green raiting form McAfee site advisor so no scams,viruses or stupid stuff like that.
There are a lot of free download planes and heli's too, just do a search on yahoo or some thing like that. If you have a two stick game controler it will work fine or use a TX from your model, there are plans for adapters on line and some TX dont need one.
And practice when ever you can, it will help.


See you out there...

I was interested in getting into rc helicopters myself. How long did it take for you to be able to fly on your own?

I think it was about 4 or 5 months with training gear on, and i slowly shortened the gear by 1 inch a week till it was gone and than another couple of months to get comfortable and to have fun instead of being scared to death i was going to kill the thing.
That was 6 years ago and in that time i have become very good, good enuff to do demo flights for Scoutarama and fly for the Spirit of Utah Air Show Team, at fun flys and fly ins. Also fly 3D demos at the State Fair.
If you want to learn the LiteMachines 120 is perfect for it, very strong and fly well. Use a sim it will help, i did not have one and i think it would have shortened the learning curve alot. Get Ray's Complete Helicopter Manual from RCM and read it it's a good book, will help with set up and everything.