I say go with the stick, anything that gives you real stick time is better than a sim, yes its slow and wont prepare you for a glow trainer but it will get your thumbs in basic mode and help once you begin to train..I bought 3 battery paks and charged them for like 12 hours at a time with my Rx charger and flew only on saturday mornings at the school up the street so I didnt need to buy a charger,,although I did later and hardly ever use it.....Rog