A simulator will be the best investment you make towards flying R/C helis hands down.

The CX will teach you orientation, but not much about actually flying an R/C heli. Don't even think about backwards figure 8's it will simply explode in the air as the main blades contact each other.

My 5 and 9 year old daughters are flying the CX in our garage. Once they have a good handle on that and on the G2 sim helis they can have a try at my Raptor 50.