Heli's and wing size

Hello, i'm starting heli's with an aspen freestyle 22 at around 100kg take of weight.
Yesterday I had my first failure because of (i think) thermal and strange wind direction.

I know that some pilots are doing heli's on thermal and going up!! (I was not trying to do that)But how is it possible, smaller wing?

Next year i want to change for something more dynamic like thriller 20...I have already tried it last year but i wasn't ready, now i have to do more heli's, mysti flip and tumble with my wing and maybe i 'll go for it.
Do you think i am wright?