Originally Posted by pmerritt

you actually should fly whatever you are comfortable with until you can fly in all orientations and crashing is rare. Once you get to that point your skills will allow you to fly even a twitchy bird.....it may be a little more difficult but your muscle memory will get you there.

If you are going to fly the 180 though and since you asked people who are more advanced fliers than yourself. I recommend listening to what they say. The answer to your problem is indeed better remedied by lowering your pitch. Think about what pitch does. The more pitch you have gives you more or lift (To a point that is....too much pitch and you can actually have your blades start fighting the wind instead of cutting through). You say it rockets up too fast....lower the pitch and it's impossible for it to do so. Also since there is less pitch in the blades your aileron will also have less overall travel so when you start flying the heli it won't dart off so hard in the direction you tell it to go.