Sims do help. Even the freebie FMS will teach you how to steer when you're flying towards yourself and it's all backwards. How the elevator is backwards when you're inverted, etc. The basics even more, like when you're too high what stick to push. How hard you can turn at speed to not go into a death spiral. How far away you can see your bird and still steer. (*No USING CHASE CAM OR ZOOM CHEATS!*) As far as the plane responding to wind, the weight and differences each plane has, it's not there. They are a nice learning tool, but a sim can never replace an instructor. No sim can trim your plane. A sim can't show you all the cool things *YOUR* plane is capable of like an instructor can. Learning on a sim you can get used to just keeping it in the air, and doing fun stuff. Then when you try and do a slow semi-graceful figure 8 around the field in real life with your trainer, you don't have a clue. I've used sims a lot, can't fly a real plane very well since I've only flown my trainer once. I can't wait for my next Instructor session. The sim advantage is my next sim session is now if I want. My instructor was impressed that I could already steer when coming back at myself, and do a decent touch - n - go landing because of the sim. Use all the tools you can learning to fly. An instructor is tool #1 by a big margin. Having a plane that flies half decent is tool #2, and a sim is close to #3 in my book. Reading these fine forums and picking brains is probably #2 or #3 though. - Joe