no mastering a 3 channel plane will not allow you to be able to fly a 4 channel tower trainer. it works for going from 4 to 3 but not the other way around. the sim will get you close enough to get it up and around a few times but the odds are fairly good you will crash. confusion and speed go hand in hand especially during landings. there is time only to react not think about what you have to do before you do it. If you are set in trying by yourself you should think about very durable airplanes, spads, kombat 40 or duraplanes. all are cheap. spads are easy to build with materials from home improvement stores. When you can fly reasonably you can move to more conventional aircraft. Do this far away from people or breakable objects and have someone with you just in case of accidents, or to help you find a downed aircraft

I learned on the simulator and have seen other people that have done the same and if you get good with the sim it does teach you things like orientation and control inputs and just how to get over the nervousness. on the sim i alway worried about dead stick landings i would practice them a lot and got very good at it . IMHO learn on the sim and fly the trainer there are planes that might help but the trainer is as the name implies a trainer, eventually the trainer will get crashed then you can learn how to fix a plane, everyone goes though this learning curve and it's nice to have someone to help but you will have to learn how to do it. things you cannot learn on the sim are engine tuning, safety, trouble shooting, field etiquette. learing on the sim nothing is certain i've seen people do it this way and i've seen people that are using instructors that are still on the buddy box three years later, i saw a guy at the field that was trained by a flight shool and had soloed and he came to the field and crashed after one pass around the field, he became disoriented and rolled it into the runway right in front of me (the closest crash I've ever seen). however you do it have fun and Good luck.

the g3 has virtual instructers will that help

it will help a little, i had G2 with the virtual instructors and i learned more by flying the trainer on G2 and learning that small movements is all it takes to take off and fly the pattern and land, when i found i could do that without ever crashing then i was ready to try my avistar trainer for real. one thing that helped with the sim was to set the view to see the ground at all times like you would be able to do for real, then orientation was easier. like i said in earlier post i practiced 1 to 2 hours a day for four month's after work during the winter.

did you crash your first flight and was that all you had to teach you? Thanks for all the help everyone.

Will the futaba auto pilot help me?