A lot of people use Phoenix or RealFlight. Personally, I've been flying ClearView for about 8 months now which is also about how long I've been flying helis. I have found ClearView to be an accurate aid and a great compliment to real flying. No, they don't simulate ground effect, but I'm not working on flying in ground effect (why exactly would you?), I'm working on piro-flips and tic-tocs. It's as spot-on as I've known most any simulator to be. I used to fly FSOne as well, but I really don't see it being any more accurate than ClearView (though it certainly is more polished). Of course, any small helicopter will be hard to discern at distance in any simulator. I find the most helpful thing you can do if you're having trouble seeing something like a TREX is a) Enable Anti-Aliasing on your video card or b) fly a larger heli

Additionally, the guy that runs it has always been helpful and incredibly quick to respond to e-mails (by which I mean an average of 10 minutes), and the program sees an update almost every other month. You mentioned that you tried ClearView before? I'm curious how long ago that may have been as it has changed a lot since I purchased it last year.

Anyhow, if your budget is in that range and you just want to know if it can help you learn, I would say yes. No simulator is spot-on that's why they're called "simulators" but ClearView will certainly help you develop the muscle memory you'll need for the real thing while saving you some money to afford another battery or servo, etc.

Merely my $.02
- Chaz