RE: Simulators
I use Realflight 3.5, I have no intentions of upgrading because it serves the purpose just fine. Speaking of saving your plane I try all maneuvers
on my sime first. I had a very hard time with belly in hovering, because the controls are reversed, a friend and Excellent 3D pilot taught me a
trick on how to overcome the reversed controls and after a few hours on the SIM I was able to do it quite easy. I probably would never had tried
this trick without the simulator.
Remember the sim is all about having fun and building muscle memory. I have worked on a specific type of aerobatic mauever for hours and
when I finally got to the field It was great to have he confidence that I knew what inputs I need to accomplish the maneuver. however I find it
more difficult to apply the practice when there is no reset button and if you screw up your plane is gone, but again there is less of a chance
of mistakes when you have some kind of practice.
I have seen older versions of Realflight pretty cheap on Ebay. and you can upgrade to the newer versions if you already have the
realflight interlink controller (it still costs, but no where near as much as a whole setup)