sims are great I do all the things I would never do at the field putting my plane in unrecoverable spins and see if I can save it or not,also strait practice touch and goes, work on your basics when you can land spot on and do some basic flying then push your level of ability you will be surprised how comfortable you will be at the field got to love the reset button. and yes the sim seems to me pretty realistic as far as the flight characteristics go.