ORIGINAL: Pryne
Would you recommend getting the Sim anyway? I'm thinking it would still be a good learning aid.
Most emphatically. I'd encourage you to do so. Regardless of age, all my students who use a sim progress notably faster than they ordinarily would without one. Sims are one of the best things ever to happen to R/C training.
And should I get G3? Or another one? Cost really isn't an object. Any sim software I get is going to be cheaper than smashing a home built airplane.
Your thinking is spot on. As for RF G3, it's not so much which sim you choose, but how and how often you use it. That said, G3 is up there with the very best of them, is inarguably the most popular probably after FMS's freeware, and sets the standard others try to emulate or exceed. Highly recommended, with the single caveat tha it requires a fair bit of PC grunt to run it for satisfactory performance. You don't need the latest bleeding edge Core 2 Duo or a Radeon 1950XT, but it does require something in the order of a GB of DDR, a 3Ghz P4 and a 6800XT (AGP or PCIe) or better to meet the sort of performance I'd find acceptable. Good luck. Have fun!