Idea 2 of 2 - Helicopter

My second idea is to produce a basic helicopter simulator. The aim would be to have a helicopter flying around a 3D environment using a joystick type device. The things I would like to utilise and incorporate are:

• Collision detection - Not going through obstacles
• Non-steady movement - Helicopters in real life don't hover in the same spot unless you are moving the control input to correct wind conditions and other physics based problems. I would like to make the helicopter move and sway unless the user (pilot) is counteracting those forces.
• Spinning blades - This would just add to the realism
• Close to accurate controls - I would like to have accurate control for pitch and roll control, yaw control, and a collective stick for lift/throttle control.

Although my programming skills are quite lacking, I have proposed the above ideas to push myself to add more complex features.