I disagree with you guys. Sims can only let you learn the basics of flight characteristics and in actual situations there is lot of difference.

Also spending too much time on sims can also be dangerous as this will adapt your subconscious controls according to the sim and when you actually fly a real model then it will be a bit difficult to adapt to actual flight characteristics and sometimes end to a crash blamming radio or other stuff.

Regarding the price of todays sims are not worth while and if you are a biggenner then try FMS free Sim to become femiliar with basic controls.