Thanks all for the insight
I am definitely going to commit - i'm a total geek when it comes to deconstructing manual control tasks, and the learning process fascinates me - so I'm not the type to run before I can walk.
I thought that helicopters might be like some other hobbies I have where you get to a phase where you just need to get hours behind you - where your head knows what you should be doing, but the motor control / brain capacity just hasn't quite caught up to it so it's just a case of practice makes perfect.
That may have been an opportunity to fly in a different location, but it sounds like each lesson is something new, so perhaps it won't work in this scenario.