Thanks for the kind words there.
It doesn't have to be terribly expensive. I fly the Blade 400 which isn't the world's most popular heli but isn't a bad one either when fitted out with decent equipment. So from time to time I'll buy a cheap second hand one which comes with spare parts. As a result I have a load of parts for not much and have been able to get a new airframe together without visiting the shop.
Recently I sold a Blade 400 over ebay which I built entirely from parts. I haven't been keeping a tally but that went a long way to covering heli purchase costs.
I'm also a careful flyer. A good friend while learning would have a $20-$30 crash every 3 weeks or so because he'd push his limits. He learned very quick and is awesome to watch. I don't push my limits so hard which means less/ no crashes - but my progression is slower (only moving onto tic-tocs after flips, inverted and all manner of FFF). I've been flying CP helis for a few years and have only had 3 crashes. The first and second were due to equipment failure (which _is_ my fault for not keeping a good eye on components and setup). The above crash is the first which I could have saved if I had more competent thumbs.
Hoping to have a heli flying tomorrow!
G
PS - In fact my biggest disappointment was that I had one of my better flight packs installed at the time, rather than one of the older ones which aren't giving as much punch! Said flight pack did its best to become a taco.