This might be a little late..but better late then never
Even though I'm no bad-ass heli pilot, i did go down the "i want to fly helis" road not long ago. During that time, i sure did some misstakes.
First I tried(as many others) the walkera way. That was a total failure. The electronics failed first hover try, and resulted in a crash. Now, go into any hobbyshop with a crashed heli,and try to get it fixed on the guaranti(warranty??) and you'll notice that it's pretty hard
So, being all mad about that, i just let it be, and continued to fly my plane for a while.
Later on the heli bug bit me again, and this time I bought a t-rex, and a better radio. I also realized that FMS(free sim) wouldnt give me enough training to learn this, so I bought a copy of reflex xtr.
So, after many sim hours, many crashes on the t-rex, i'm now able to fly it, and even be in control once in a while
So, what have I learned through all this. The answer is, A LOT.
I would go another route today. Even though people agree(and so do I)that large nitros are a better way of learning, I still would go with a smaller electric today. The reason being that I can go outside and fly whenever I feel like it, not having to go to an r/c field because of the noise, and safety issues.
So, i'd stay with electrics, but I would have bought one of the e-sky honeybee FP's. A friend of mine has one, and it's a blast to fly. It's small, so therefore it's a bit hysterical to fly, but on the other hand it's extremely sturdy. Most of the times we just pick it up, and blow of the dirt, and off it goes again.
It also have long fly times with a lipo on it. This is very good when trying to learn. It's also cheap to buy, which means that it's not a big deal if you get tired of helis, or if you feel that it's nto for you.
After that I still would have bought the t-rex, but like I said, looking at it today, i would have done it the opposite way, the FP first, then the t-rex.
so, Iamarookie, you do have some different ways to approach the heli flying.
The easiest to fly would be a larger nitro. The next step "down" is a 450 class electric. And for a sturdy flyer to learn on, you have the choise of the e-sky honeybee FP, wich holds up to many more crashes then the others, but are harder to fly.
Whatever you choose, your chance of success will be multipled in square by using a sim, and using it a lot.(10-40 hours before actually flying the real thing).
But then again, we all know how it is. When you buy your heli, you'll fly it the first day, crash it, and then spend the time on the sim quietly saying"dang, i had no idea it was that hard"