Decades ago, I heard the analogy that flying a heli was like riding a bicycle down the street while balancing a marble on the edge of a butter knife! Obviously those early heli's weren't literally that hard but the fact is that heli's were many times more difficult to learn to fly than they are today. And part of the credit goes to simulators. Unless you've got a bottomless wallet the sim is the only way to go.

I think (I know from personal experience) that you can learn to hover a heli without a tremendous amount of crashing and the resulting damage to your wallet. You're only a few feet off the ground at that point and a good set of training gear is worth it's weight in gold. But once you get beyond that point, the potential for horrific crashes increases exponentially. A crash from 50 feet up is GOING to result in severe damage. A sim can definitely help you prepare. I'm starting to practice some basic 3D stuff on G3. I can't even imagine trying to fly 3D without a sim!


Mike