I agree with Charlie, 'a sim is worth its weight in gold' if you are unsure then get FMS - its a free download from this site

http://n.ethz.ch/student/mmoeller/fms/index_e.html

you can get a cable to use your transmitter as a controller and although the physics arn't perfect the graphics are good and you can decide if you want to put $ into a 'commercial' sim. I use it and have a really good Raptor model that I use to 'mess' with.
hope this helps

Nick