Yes, a parkflyer trainer is an excellent choice.

I've had a couple of students who had a really hard time dealing with which direction to turn the airplane. I figured they would benefit from running an RC car, but that was not going to happen.

The other day, I noticed the Multiplex MiniMag and got one. Excellent way a newbie can build time and confidence. Nice and slow and hard to hurt. And is a perfect "simulation".

I find that newbies can pickup a really bad habit from the RC sims. The firewall and pray takeoff works with every sim I've tried. And I've had more than one student who had learned that firewalling the engine suddenly on takeoff had no downsides (pun intended). I've yet to see any sim model that killed itself on takeoff before the airframe had a chance to fly. See it at the field every week. Guy lines up for takeoff, looks around at the wind and traffic, and SLAMS THE THROTTLE WIDE OPEN and prays. And the airplane winds up heading 90degrees to the runway IF HE'S LUCKY. Never seen that happen even once in a sim.

So I'd advise somebody that if they can't afford both a sim and a parkflyer, get the parkflyer. Until the sims actually recreate ALL the things that need to be learned, they're 2nd choice.