Equally quick helicopter update
After an insanely busy end of January with work, I’m very pleased to finally have a lighter day where I can take a few minutes after my lunch and practice flying my helicopter. I flew 2 batteries today (about 20 minutes), and the new transmitter was a really good choice. It enabled me to do the blade grip-flip mod without actually moving any hardware around. Doing this substantially improved the blade tracking[1], and thereby eliminating any nasty vibrations.
The digital trims are really nice too, since I can reach down and give it a little click in-flight if I notice that I’m leaning on one of the sticks.
All in all, I hovered for 2 batteries today, and things were substantially easier. I still have a long way to go, but hopefully I am over the major technical hurdles that I’ve been dealing with so far. Now hopefully I can fly / crash the damn thing! 
[1] - Blade tracking refers to the path the blades take while the head is spinning. Ideally the blades should travel along the same path (as opposed to one being higher or lower than the other). If the blades don’t track correctly, you get vibrations, turbulence, and generally poor flight performance.