Well, I've been flying for about 9 years (if hovering only counts
). Seriously though, been flying for about 3-4 years, and here's my take, for what it's worth. A coaxial is great to learn orientation with, and even once you have that down cold, you can still buzz it around indoors and do really challenging stuff with it to still make it fun, so IMHO it's not a waste of money at all.
As far as fixed pitch helis go, no two will fly alike, ever. Size, weight, powerplant, flybar design (or no flybar at all on some), etc will make them all feel differently in the air. There's was once a time when if you wanted to get into helis, you dropped $2500 or so on a large nitro CP heli, and took baby steps (literally) forever until you could actually fly the thing. Those days (thankfully), are long gone. My personal advice now that we have micro collective pitch helis that are super durable (like the Blade MCP X, which is my personal choice for a CP trainer BTW) I would skip a fixed pitch all together.
Now, before everyone freaks out; here is why I say this.
1. Fixed pitch helis depend on pitch that is preset in the blades, and throttle to determine how much lift you get. On a perfectly calm day, that's just fine. But one gust of wind, and a fixed pitch heli will balloon or shoot upwards on the wind. So, you drop the throttle, right about the time the wind dies, now you're falling like a stone, so you jam the throttle, then the wind blows again.......... Get the picture? The wind blows a lot here, almost always at least a 8-10mph wind, and I crashed large 200 sized fixed pitch birds A LOT for this very reason.
2. Modern flybarless CP (collective pitch) helis are no more complicated really in the head setup than a fixed pitch bird. You have exactly two more links to adjust, that's all. And thank god, flybarred helis take for friggin ever to adjust all those tiny linkages, that gets old when you're learning and crashing. And YOU WILL crash, count on it. Don't let it bother you. Go home, fix it right mechanically and get back out there, soon. Not to mention, they "feel" different in the air also, they track better, like they're on rails, and they're also slightly more efficient. There's also less stuff to break in a crash, meaning less parts cost.
3. Collective pitch helis can pull themselves down out of the wind under power, making the heli stable rather than an RC kite that a fixed pitch becomes. They also handle the wind better overall, and IMHO are just easier to fly because they are more stable, and smoother when climbing or descending.
I have a Blade MSR X flybarless fixed pitch that's almost the same size as my MCP X, and it just flies weird once you're used to a collective pitch heli and will tech you some bad habits once you move on to a CP heli to be honest. I never fly the thing, it just sits here in it's box.
Moving on, I have literally beat my MCP X to death over and over, including landing inverted under power on grass, and kept flying all day long. Notice I said flying over grass, this is important when learning, you want a soft surface to plant it on. Also, if you truly know you're going in, KILL THE POWER! More damage is done when all that power has nowhere to go with the blades bound up against the ground, than from impact most times. If you could put a brake on the rotor head, and stop it immediately, you'd probably rarely break anything, but all that energy has to go somewhere.
My advice, go buy an MCX2 RTF. Learn to fly it in all orientations, especially nose in. Once you have all that down cold, if you're still having fun (this is important, I've quit helis completely twice because it just felt like work, and no fun at all) go buy a DX6 or DX7 computer radio and MCP X. Learn about proper setup (always do your own setup on every collective pitch heli, never trust any RTF or BNF collective pitch heli, just ask me why) of both the mechanical aspect of the heli, and the programming of your radio. A good computer radio makes all the difference in the world. You can tame down the hottest fire breathing 3D monster to feel like a big oversized MCP X, literally.
Sorry the post is so long, but I hope it helps some. Just what I've learned with 3 goes at RC helis in 9 years. Otherwise known as my worthless $.02
. Have always wanted to learn helis but was always too scared. Boats, cars and planes give me no problems. Helis look so fun to fly but was always told they were too difficult. Thanks for the info in this thread! Think I'm buying a heli this weekend 
