I`m with kingwoodbarney and a couple of others. No brainer. Sim first.

Not only will it give you a good grounding (it won`t teach you to fly), but if your son decides he`s not as interested as he thought, it`s still there as a video game for a rainy day. G2`s are going cheap right now, and as somebody else said, the G3 required a top end video card which your computer may not have.

Another tip is go to the aerodynamics forums and read up on how flight controls operate before trying the sim. At least then you`ll have an idea why you`re moving which sticks where.