First, Welcome to the hobby, it's great fun with lots of different areas to explore.

I too used to fly FS and Falcon and other sims. I also did about 30 hrs in full scale and about the same in ultralites when I was young. You will find some aspects of flying RC planes to be radically different than the sims.

When I started to get interested in RC, I found out about and purchased the Great Planes Real Flight G2 RC flight simulator. This is a great help in developing your skills of piloting from the ground. I flew it every day for months while I built my first kit (sig 4 star), then put together a Tower .40 trainer ARF.

I, only at the last moment, decided to go with an instructor. Even if I could have been able to take off fly a basic pattern, and land on my own, flying with an instructor was the best decision I made. Flying with an instructor will shorten your flight learning curve, give you lessons on how to communicate with other pilots, conduct yourself safely on the ground, and how to properly assemble, check, run, tune, clean, and break down your equipment.

Scott