The Nano QX is an awesome little bird for first timers and I would highly recommend it. My bro tried it for the first time the other day without any issues at all. Granted, he didn't try it in stunt mode (I have the stunt rates programmed to 150% and the stunt expo programmed to -5%), and he is already a R/C plane pilot, but he was surprised how stable it was in the stabilization mode. He was plastering it on the ceiling and making it "bounce" off the floor without any difficulty. The little quad copters with high quality stabilization systems (like SAFE) are probably the easiest and most docile of all helis to fly. I've yet to break anything on my Nano QX and I've crashed it pretty hard; I've even dropped it out of the sky at 40 ft into the grass to show someone how hard it is to break. And as a bonus, the Nano QX does do flips if you have the rates up high enough (it can't fly inverted, though).
A good quad or a good co-axial are the places to start for beginners. I personally would recommend you avoid the cheap stuff because you'll get what you pay for. The Nano QX isn't very expensive (only about $80-$90 for the RTF version), and trust me it's worth every penny if you're a beginner. The RTF (Ready To Fly) version comes with a cute little transmitter which is fine for beginners. I bought the BNF (Bind 'N Fly) version because I use my DX8 transmitter to fly mine; primarily so I can program the rates, expo, stunt mode switch, timer, etc.
I'm hoping Pause will get one so he can back me up on how easy it is to fly for a beginner and how durable it is.
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