What you need to be able to do is take off and hover in a fixed spot on the ground without moving off too far and without having to land because the Helicopter is getting out of control.
This may take some people from a week up to a year, depending on how much time they put in, in the initial stages of learning to hover.
All flying starts and ends in a hover so make sure you can hover a tank in a stationary position before you move on.

Well pick out 2 spots on the ground weither they are imaginary or fixed it doesn't mater, lets just say that there are a couple of daisies on the ground say 3-4 metres apart. Hover the Helicopter sideways between these markers keeping the tail 90 degrees to the line. This takes a small input of tail rotor to keep the tail in line and a small input of aileron to get the helicopter to start the move and opposite to stop it when it gets to the other marker. Also Elevator is used to keep the Helicopter heading down the line and not out into the paddock. Practice this maneuver stopping at the markers and briefly hovering over them until you become proficient at it to move onto the next step.

Start by Flying Sideways

The next step is to fly the line with the nose of the helicopter pointing slightly in the direction of travel. Not quite 45 degrees, stop at the end of the line, turn the helicopter and fly the helicopter down the line to the other marker, with the nose of the helicopter pointing slightly in the direction of travel. This will build up your skills on flying the helicopter in a forward direction whilst still flying the helicopter in an attitude you are used to.

Slowly work on flying down the line

Once you can do this without any trouble you may want to increase the angle of the nose to build up on flying in a straight line stopping and turning the helicopter.  This is teaching you all the skills needed to fly circuits.  Now you need to fly these circuits without stopping and get a rhythm for which you put in an input of rudder and aileron together and slowly push out the ends of the line and bring the nose further around and flow the turns into a figure 8.  This will take a couple of weekends to master but the benefits will be your flying circuits before other members in your club who have been flying for years. Good luck.

Finally work up to getting the nose right around to complete a figure 8.