If you have a club or group of flyers close to you, visit and  get acquainted. Find out what they are flying and get their input . They are probably your best source of information and  may be your future flying partners. Ignore the guy with the hot dog heli that tries to tell you that you need all that bling and hop up stuff.

All that said, here is my opinion...

Buy a Raptor 50 V2 and build it stock (wood blades and all). Although an ARF will get you into the air faster, the experience you will get from assembling the kit is well worth it.

The Raptor 50 V2 is the most common heli around. It flies well and with some upgrades will take you well into developing your flying skills. Parts are inexpensive. And readily available. Upgrades are available to your hearts content but most are not necessary.

You do not need (or want) Carbon blades to learn to fly. As you progress, you will want to switch to carbon blades as your skills pass from basic hovering and forward flight into maneuvers (3D).

You do not need, or want, lightweight paddles to learn to fly. Upgrade to the lightweight raptor green paddles or even the MA white paddles as you progress and need a more responsive heli.

Install an OS50 (non-hyper) engine. You do not need the power of a hyper engine while learning. While you are learning you will be spending a lot of time near the ground which due to the dust and grit will be hard on an engine. Why install a Hyper and wear it out when you are not using the power. Later if you desire you can move to the hyper and  higher nitro fuel. There are less expensive engines than the OS… I don't recommend any of them.

Start with a 15% or 20% heli fuel. Switch to 30% as you progress.

Buy a heli radio (7 channel minimum recommended) . I now fly JR. I used to fly Futaba. One is as good as the other in performance. I would recommend you stay with either JR or Futaba. If you will be flying at a local club, check what they are using. There are 50 channels available. In some areas they all work. In some areas certain frequencies are a problem. Check with you local club or hobby shop before you buy.

The new 7 channel Spectrum radio is nice, but the 821 servos supplied with it are not recommended for heli use. The spectrum will eliminate any frequency conflict problems.

I like JR radios, but I use Futaba Servos and Gyros. They all cross change just fine (you will  need to trim the plugs to use Futaba servo with a JR receiver. A Futaba transmitter will not talk to a JR receiver and vice versa. Is PCM better than FM? Yes.

Buy a Futaba 401 gyro with 9254 tail servo. The 401 has proven to be the best gyro for the dollars and will lock the tail solid. Properly setup, most people will never out fly it. Do not run the gain to high (65 should be good) and make sure you are not binding anywhere in the controls or you will burn up the servo.

Get a simulator.  FMS if your budget is tight. (its free). The latest version will run off of your JR radio without any special cables. Plug it into your mike jack.

If you have a few bucks to spend, go for the Realflight. Check the boards. G3.5 is the latest, but you should be able to get a Realflight G2 for under $100.00. (Make sure your computer can handle it.)

Practice on the simulator until you can hold a steady hover before you ever try to fly the heli. Come back to the simulator and learn hovering at all 4 positions (tail in, left side, right side and nose in). Most simulators will not fly exactly like the real heli (especially the FMS unit). Your time on the simulator is to master the input required to correct for, and hold, a situation.  Your goal is to be able to put in the correct stick movement without thinking about it.   

Install training gear on your heli. A good set of training gear will pay for itself in saved blades and crash parts. Use them until you complete basic forward flight.

Find a heli pilot to do final setup and testing of you heli. The hardest thing for a new pilot to overcome is a heli which has an incorrect head speed and is out of trim. If you can find a pilot to do this for you, and explain what he is doing so you learn, you will be way ahead of the game.

This is my free advice. Remember you get what you pay for… There are many other options which could be, and have been, debated. But… I do not have any intention of getting into a discussion of them. For more information, visit one of the online heli boards shown on my main page. There are lots of people who would love to discuss the finer points with you. Use the boards search function and read up on as much as you can before entering into a discussion.

Al