Piper Chuck has the right idea. I have 5 flight transmitters, 3 FM, 2 AM, 3 4channel, 2 6 channel, 4 are Futaba, 1 is Airtronics, all on different channels, all non-computer radios, only one of which I bought new. I have several flight packs for each. 4 of these radios were purchased on eBay, and I still buy most of my servos and receivers there. You will find you will always have a use for a simple, inexpensive 4-6 channel analog radio, even if you do go to a computer radio later. I'm getting into combat gremlins now and having cheap radio gear to put in them is a big plus. As for simulators, you can't go wrong with Realflight. Add-ons let you sample a wide variety of aircraft, and you can even model your exact aircraft with the modification feature that's built in.