My son and I also put in a lot of time on various sims and they really do help. I also had the advantage of building and flying control line for many years so knew how to build properly, bench trim and operate engines.

What a simulator will NOT do for you is teach you how to fly safely in the presence of other flyers and spectators. That, in my view, is worth the price of admission to the R/C club instructor arrangement. Simulators also have the disadvantage that you can't really see the ground in relation to the airplane so setting up your reference points for approaches and landings are actually more difficult on the sim.

We had about 6 flights each on the buddy cord then were taking off & landing with minimal assistance. Wound up not flying at all during the summer and when we arrived at the field one day on a weekday we were the only ones there. Son and I each put up a couple of unsupervised solos. Thread appears here --> http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3477988/tm.htm