I am a firm believer of the NexStar that comes with the real flight simulator. I solo'ed on my third trip to the field and have advanced to a SIG Somethin' Extra after 2 months of flying the trainer. As for how real it is? ALMOST the same. In Texas, you never fly with less than 10 mph winds and usually greater than that! The Real Flight software allows you to set up the wind and add wind gusts as well. The part that is hard to train for is trimming out the TX. The software assumes that the control surfaces are already trimmed and we know thats always the case