As a relative newbie with trainer and sim experience I'll throw in my 2 cents.. If you can find a field and someone willing to help you, please try the buddy box arrangement at LEAST once. Someone mentioned this already and it is GREAT advice. If after trying it for real, you feel confident enough to do it yourself, go for it.. but at least you will be able to make an educated and informed decision at that point.

I Started last year about this time with a "electricub" and met a new friend at our flying field who was kind enough to give me his time to train me. I had spent TONS of time on RealFlight, but it is very different as the folks above have stated. You can increase the realism of realflight by going into the menus, and turning on the winds so that they gust from different directions, also turn the turbulence and all the rest of that stuff.. The trainers on RF will behave a little more realistic with these settings. Oh, also on the computer, don't sit down at the chair, stand up and force your knees to bang into each other so you get used to that noise!! Anyway, I didn't have an unlimited budget for this hobby, and crashing a plane and starting over from scratch was NOT an option for me. The sim did help me get a good opinion on which stick I should be moving, but I learned a lot more from the fella that instructed me.

For the most part I learned last year on a Goldberg Eagle 2, and am now flying a Ultra Stick, and a FancyFoam Ultimate Bipe (which is probably my favorite!) and knock on wood have not had an incident yet. I know it's only a matter of time, but I believe if you listen to the inner voice of reason (hey buddy, it's pretty windy why don't ya sit down and wait this out a bit) and go slow you will get much more enjoyment from the hobby.. Now if you have a million dollars lying around, and an unlimited amount of time for building and repairing, well maybe that's a different story provided you don't hurt yourself or someone else..

Go to the field, make some new friends and have a lot of fun.. you won't regret it.. There is much more fun in this hobby than just going to some random park by yourself and flying alone..