But what I want to add to this is really some observations that I think if I would have followed I would have spent less money on the machine:

• Setup your heli for tavelling / carrying like this:
  



• Then carry it like this, more or less - the blade grip is plenty strong, you can just let it dangle in your fingers.



• The blades are secure and you carry it by the blade grip, with tail pointing where you're going. The idea here is that this way, you always can see where the tail is and are much less likely to jam it into something or have some door slam on it.
    



• When you are ready to fly, besides alerting others to your intentions, and generally clearing the deck, I'd recommend that you adopt a mental checklist something along the lines of the following:
  1. after the deck is clear
  2. Set your heli in it's takeoff location
  3. Turn on your transmitter
  4. Check that the collective stick is fully down
  5. Check that your throttle mode, gyro and dual rate switches are correct
  6. Set your transmitter on the ground safely near
  7. At the heli, remove the blade support and extend the blades
  8. Look at the transmitter and visually confirm that the collective stick is down
  9. Apply power, and immediately position a hand to catch the blades if they start spinning
  10. Wait til all the lights and noises to be correct
  11. Pick up the transmitter and ensure that you hold it and carry it with your thumb holding the collective stick down



• So when you are about ready to fly, mentally rehearse the checklist and then *do* it - each time



• Make a habit of always carrying the transmitter with your thumb holding the collective down
  



• Have a checklist for shutting things down:
  1. once it's on the ground and winding down
  2. walk to it, carrying your transmitter with thumb on collective, and bringing the blade support
  3. set the support and transmitter on the ground near the heli
  4. once the blades have stopped: disconnect power on the heli
  5. move the blades to travelling position and install the blade support
  6. turn transmitter off



• So, when you're done flying, *first*, mentally run through your checlkist and then *do* it, each time.

Here's what I've come to understand about flying a helicopter - the joys and the challenges:
There are 4 controls you need to master, all simultaneously, and they all interact with each other. When you start hovering (with a reasonably setup machine) you really only are working with 2 of the 4. The 4 are:

To get back to your wife's question - you'll be ready to "fly that thing" When you have discovered that those 4 controls actually interact in predictable ways, and you know how that interaction works and you can control them (all 4 of them) simultaneously. And how will you discover this? by patiently spending the time building your skills and reactions and sensitivities to the machine.

And for the next steps? - My current plan is to take all the time I need to add control #3 to my skills, and then I'll get *really* brave and actively start working on nose-in takeoff, landing and hover - it'll be Radd all over again, just nose in. Then I'll start working on control #4, tail, side and front views. The thing is, regardless of how much help I get, how many people I talk to or people I watch, in the end, it's still me that's running the controls. It's still me that runs through the safety routines for each flight (not just each battery, each flight! - no stinkin way I'm gonna let that thing hurt me!)

1. Add weight to the flybar
2. Tweak the pitch/throttle curves
3. Tweak the D/R settings
4. I still *love* Radd's approach to flying, and agree totally with his next steps