I started with FMS and found it lacking in reality. It was kinda fun flying the CX, but the CP models felt wrong.

I decided to spend the future family inheritance/fortune on RF 4.5 and I'm reasonably happy with it. The Raptor 60 model seems to replicate my Sceadu EVO .50 sufficiently to help prepare me for future maneuvers. Others at our club use this sim regularly to map out their next move, and seems to prepare them adequately. Most practice daily for 20-60 minutes per day. One of the gurus never had a simulator and flies very well, so there you go. He does recommend a sim, but he himself is beyond that. Of course he learned to fly before we had gyros so go figure.

Wish RF lite or whatever it's called for $99 was out before I jumped in. Sounds like all I needed. One little disappointment was that there wasn't a model for my heli available for 4.5. There's one for 3.5, but nobody has migrated it to the new version and I don't know how to modify it and really don't have the time nor the inclination to develop it. Still, like I said the Raptor .60 seems to be the closest and that suits me fine. Reality is still different than simulation. Crash costs are much higher.

Anyway, I think a sim really does help in understanding basic moves so get something.

Mack