I just recently purchased Aerofly Pro and here is my take:

If the sim will provide practice opportunities that the flying field won't, go for it.


I live in a state that only has good flying weather about 7 months of the year. The sim is great for winter.
Furthermore, my job incroaches on daylight quite a bit, its hard to fly in the dark.
I also have a new baby, so my little free time usually occurs between midnight and 3 am.

It doesn't sound like you have these limitations.

A big part of flying is the maintanance and tuning, trimming, devepment of a good sense of distance and lines, training your vision and sense of airspeed and other things that a simulator can't truly provide.
Furthermore, it really takes willpower to actually "practice" on a sim and not play.
Its easy to waste a lot of nonproductive time on a sim.

Here is a better idea:
Burn $500 in fuel AND get a simulator.
Its only money!