Thats how I learned to fly was with the simulator I didn't have an instructor. Even if the simulator does not have the best graphics and is not ultra realistick, if you spend a lot of time on it your flying skills will improve much faster than just flying alone. The reason being that you can take the plane on the simulator and throw it into all kinds of funky attitudes and not worry about crashing just reset and go. By doing that you'll learn the right controll inputs no matter what attitute the plane is in (no dumb thumb). Well good luck and I hope you enjoy your Nextar, I know I do.