I'm in the same boat as all of you but instead of purchasing the actual heli as yet, I get Real Flight 3.5 to get familiar with the basics. I've learned the hard way from flying my plane that sim time is valuable and now having limited time on the heli sim, I can say it's definitely a good investment. After almost a week of tail in hovering practice for maybe 30 minutes each day, I can hover ok but still have trouble keeping it in one spot. I guess this will come with time. I just hope the transition from sim to actual heli is somewhat similar as I don't want to be surprised.

Planning to purchase a Trex 450se v2 in the next month or so and build it up. Also planning on a new radio and I've heard good things about the DX7. Any opinions are always welcome.