A sim is a big help in learning to fly initially... getting the control perspective, learning to bank, turn, do loops & rolls, fly inverted, land, etc. If you have lots of sim time, you should excel very fast. If you can fly in the sim very well... I wouldn't be surprised if you solo after only 3 flights or so, like I did. I had over 100 flights on a heli and sim experience when I started with planes, but I think the sim experience is what helped the most.