OK then.  Thanks for all your comments.  Sorry for causing such a stir!  After reading all the post, the conclusion I sort of came to is:

1.  Because it's a sim, have a bit of a play about with the wind speed and direction and gusts etc.  Who cares if you crash on a sim???
2.  Become efficient on the sim with 15mph+ and I should be fine when I get to the real thing.
3.  When I do get to the real thing - depending on the instructor - I can expect to start flying in anything up to about 10mph at least to begin with???

Cheers