I'm one of the newbies and as far as I'm concerned I feel the simulator is a very good tool. I have the G4.5 and have been using it for about 4 months now. My only actual flying experience has been with an Avistar flying a racetrack pattern. I use the NexStar for my sim time and I think the two aircraft are quite similar. I'll just keep flying the sim for now and hope for an early spring. The snow is getting to be a real pain.