Hi Audie,
I have a Nexstar also. It's a nice flying plane, just take offs can get a little hairy. I practiced on the sim quite a bit and when I first flew, the controls felt natural since I had spent so much time on the sim.

The one thing though that the sim, even with its simulated wind gusts can't really do a good job of is landing from what I've found. The real plane's wings are going to not be near as steady as on the sim when coming in. You'll have to constantly be correcting ailerons to level the wings. Granted, they usually are minor corrects but you still need to be ready for anything.

Also, you can EASILY three point a landing on the sim. I was doing just that when practicing landings on the sim before I ever made an actual landing. This translated into a BOUNCE when I landed the real plane from the habits I picked up on the sim. I had no idea how to really flair because the sim didn't teach me that. Make sure your main gear touch first before the nose. Once you get to the runway and about 3ft off the ground, keep the nose up and it will float right in at that attitude - touching on the mains then the front nose wheel will settle in. The sim just can't give you the same experience as a real landing but using it to get used to controls and see how the plane reacts to inputs is great!