RE: besides $- which sim?
electronic flight is much cheaper then fuel, but i reckon fuel sounds cooler, i like the roar of that engine, but yeh, im useing FMS which is free, its a 6 meg download and comes with a handful of planes of different types. , also ia trustyed hobby shop, is [link=http://www.modelflight.com.au]Modelflight[/link] , very good. get urself a not too expensive 3 channel from them to train on.