RE: first Heli
meh, these are all easy, I understand a sim for those hard transitions like going to 3d flight, but just bouncing around the den? guess it depends on your prior experience and eye/hand coordination. I was able to pick up the CX3 in a weekend, my brother in law was flying fairly wall within 3 or 4 batteries. I even have my mother and father flying it... ok. 1 almost landed it on the roof, the other broke the landing gear, but all in all... its not that hard. I was able to take up a trex 450 myself after 2 weeks on the cx3, no sims, no help, learned to set it up from vids online and flew it, still going strong.
personally, I have a sim, I just dont use it, I dont like it, I personally dont think it feels much at all like the real thing. I am using real flight 4.5.