You'll know when you are ready.

To be honest... it takes about a year in the hobby before you hone in on what you'll like or not. Don't rush out and buy anything. That's why a club is important. you can see planes fly and talk with other guys about why they gravitate to a certain aspect of the hobby... some like scale, others like 3D, other's like electic flight, etc....

The first thing I did was go out and buy a bunch of stuff that later I found I didn't like, want or need.

The simulator is the real deal RealFLight... BUT it's a special version that only has the NexStar trainer on it. It uses the real transmitter with an interface to fly the "cyber plane".


Wind can be tricky... and you do "feel" some turbulence, but not so much the 3 foot drops... you fly the plane in "ground wind" not the 100o's of feet where such changes are occuring.

For the most part flying isn't to difficult, it's the directing the plane when it's coming at you that can be tricky... if you've done a lot of cars (sounds like you have) then it'll be a good bit easier for you.