Hi Graham,
Thanks for the advice. I've got myself a copy of realflight 5.5 and having a play with the heli hover training, not as easy as you first think. Did this after getting my helicopter and thinking "how difficult can this be" and crashing it within a minute of switching it on. Not really the same as rc cars. Still at least I didn't damage the helicopter and it's now been put into storage for a while until I've had a lot of practice on the simulator.