Sure you can skip the trainer stage. Particularly if you've got a simulator. I started on helis in March 2000 and got the CSM simulator at that point. I hadn't flown a plane in 10+ years but I decided I'd like to have another go, so I flew everything in the simulator and then went out and bought myself a Great Planes Dazzler. After flying the sim, it was dead easy to fly the real thing.....*heaps* easier than flying the heli