Definately get a sim, Ihave the Phoenix and it's a great.

You can adjust for wind and have gusts at whatever frequency you desire and speed. The one thing that stands out on all the replies is the fact you will have sweaty palms when you hit the field...nerves come into play and a space bar is free, crashing in real life is....you know.

The sim will not 100% duplicate your plane, but will be darn close...at least you will get the stick movements down.

I use mine for the heli and it's SCARY accurate, very scary accurate. Knock on glass, save your @$%, Ihave not had a mishap yet with my 50 size nitro spending alot of time on the sim.

If you want to learn on a heli or a plane, there is a somewhat of a "set" way to accomplish this, for planes, get an instructor and with a good long runway, practice touch and go's but don't fly the pattern.

Get up to takeoff speed then settle in for the landing only getting a few feet off the gound. The final approach and flare are important. When you are able to lift off and land, the rest is much less intimidating.

Iactually learned to fly the real ones before the models, and always remember....... that "turning is the horizontal component of lift", meaning, the plane will roll with the aileirons and climb with the elevators, butbank into a turn and pull the elevators back is how you turn. You can surely roll into a turn but to come around it's the elevators that will turn you, the rudder is a different story but practicing this on a sim will help you ALOT.

You get the takeoff and landing down along with just a simple turn, your confidence will be boosted well beyond what you are expexcting when you hit the field, removes some of those nerves.

Morale of the story.... GETASIM!