Troy,

I started trying to fly RC about 20 years ago with no instructor. The guy who WAS going to teach me to fly recommended a Jensen Ugly Stik, which I spent about 150 hours building. I also built another shoulder-wing plane, the name of which I can't remember. Well, the guy moved before I ever touched a controller. Out of frustration, I went to the field one day by myself to learn to fly. I totaled both planes in less than 2 minutes each. It was enough to make me quit this hobby for 20 years.

This time around I did not want to be dependent on an instructor for long. I read all great things about the RealFlight G2 simulator, so I bought it. I also had to buy a better video card and a new sound card also, bringing my total purchase to $350. That was the smartest $350 I have spent in this hobby.

After about 6 hours on the simulator, I went to the field to fly. I landed my 3rd flight. My instructor was amazed, and still talks about it to this day. I have read other posts in this forum of people landing their 1st flight after using the SIM.

It took me about 3 hours on the SIM to instinctively (without thinking about it) give the correct inputs with planes flying away from me or towards me or any other direction. 3 hours equates to about (18) 10-minute flights, or about 4 days at the field with an instructor. In the case of no-instructor, that's a whole lot of crashes and time repairing or rebuilding planes.

I would highly recommend RF G2 to learn on before attempting to really fly. It now comes with both a controller and the cable to use your controller. It's not something you'll outgrow, either. I still use the SIM to learn new tricks, and I'm starting to learn 3D on it.

Just my opinion.

: )