Different things work for different folks.
I'd never touched an RC aircraft before I got my Blade CP, but I started right away with the training gear, and spent a good dozen flights skittering along the gound in my garage tail-in before I got it more than 2 inches off the ground.
I spent no time or money on a simulator and am now at the point where I can hover and maneouvre at fair speed comfortably tail-in up to 8-10 feet off the ground whipping around my driveway and am practicing nose-in and sideways hovering the same way I started the whole thing off.
The key is having the patience to spend a lot of time on or right near the ground until you can keep it truly under control before you heft her up.
I'm not saying the sims are useless, but I don't think a sim's essential provided you're willing to spend some time doing some really unimpressive flying
I had more fun skittering on the ground with the real RC heli than I do when I try out something like FMS or Flightgear and so far it's only cost me 4 pairs of blades and a flybar.