I'm not self taught, but I can comment on the difference between the simulator and real life. There are 2 differences, IMO. The first is that in real life you have depth perception and varying ways that the light alters the appearance of your plane. The first is an advantage for real flying, while the latter can make it more difficult until you get used to it. The other issue is that the effects of air turbulence is less consistent in real life than in the sim. When you do your wind speed and turbulence settings in the sim, the effect is consistent everywhere and throughout the flight. In real life, wind is always changing, faster and slower speed and different amounts of turbulence in different places and at different times. So real flying will surprose you a bit more often with odd movements ofhte plane, although the stability system in your apprentice will smooth a lot of that out. If you are comfortable on the sim, you are probably ready to fly the real plane. Just be ready for weird responses to air turbulence and observe what's really happening, not what you expect to happen.