I think this is a fantastic helicopter for an intermediate pilot who is comfortable flying a high-performance coax or the MSR. The catch is you need a large grassy field if you are an intermediate pilot. In-house flying with this one is for advanced pilots in my opinion. I actually think it is easier to hover and fly than the MSR-X (as long as you are outside--by contrast an intermediate pilot can fly the MSR-X indoors with a little effort.) This helicopter is incredibly durable when crashing into grass. Mine has survived 100's of grass crashes with no problems. Just kill the throttle prior to impact. After "bad crashes" the white main rotor gear will usually need to be snapped back into place to minimize blade vibration. It is blast to fly and can go incredibly fast....but that's why you need a lot of room; one wrong input and the craft can be zinging away at high speed. However, given space, you can often make the correction and bring it back.

The most annoying thing for me was tail blow out. With practice you will learn to avoid it but when you get in a "panic" situation and give it too much throttle too fast, it will spin out of control and often crash. Advanced pilots claim tail blow out is very well controlled on this helicopter and I'm sure it is...for advanced pilots. The helicopter handles light wind very well but start out on a windless morning or evening for your initial flights. I recommend getting 8 or more Turnigy 300 mA, 1s, 35c batteries for extended flight times.

I started out on the cyclic with 25% throws/35% Negative Expo (DX6i transmitter) and that was plenty for control and enabled a "new intermediate" pilot to hover it. For starting out, I also set up the pitch curve to go 70% to 100%, completely eliminating any negative pitch. (Negative pitch seemed to worsen crashes when killing the throttle prior to impact.) In my opinion, an Intermediate pilot can safely hover this helicopter in a 12' x 12' room but that is about it. To actually fly it, head outdoors when there is no wind unless you have advanced skills.