Heli flight school online....

[Ashley Davis]

the only bit I'm not convinced about is the jump from hovering to inverted hovering before learning about circuits or controlling the heli to fly it back to you from distance.

Inevitably first attempts the heli is going to fly off inverted and end up at a distance travelling at speed (assuming you actually manage to flip back out), now you really need to know how to fly it back.

Personally I think you should learn hovering and circuits first so when things do go wrong you at leat have a chance to fly your model back to you under control.

[GravityKills]

...and putting something back in to the hobby

if you like and own phoenix, have a look at those (description here).
They aren't exactly pretty, but should be recognizeable. Again, I found that flying those centered, with constant altitude etc this is much harder than it may look at first glance. Practising competition moves, just like preparing for the B-test etc is good exercise, IMO.

>> now you really need to know how to fly it back.
or pluck it from a tree, hanging there, still inverted. That's what I did