Dont hesitate to go to the outside view from behind. That will give you an idea of how the stick movements effect the heli. Ignore the gauges,dont stare at one area and stay ahead of it. The lag especially on the defaults helis is horrible. Say the heli begins slightly going backwards,by the time you add forward stick its already really moving back and then when the forwards imput catches up, this problem just continues. That where alot of people misunderstand the problem. They naturally reduce joystick sensitivity and add deadzone to the stick and or/ reduce the realism settings to "dumb" down the heli. This may make the heli more stable but you loose alot of the ability to precisly control it. Worse if you learn this way then moving to a Dodo is going to seem like balancing a marble on a bowling ball. Find you a heli with wheels, go out to KEDW and practice away. At least then instead of digging the skids in the ground you can roll it out.
Also for a while take off with the nose slightly forward and fly out forward. Same with landing. Always be moving slightly forward. Again this is where a wheel heli will really help or use one of the DODOs with floats on the water.