I JUST PURCHASED MY FIRST HELI, A HONEY BEE MK3 FIXED PITCH. CAN ANYBODY RECOMMEND A REALLY GOOD SIM.

I use realflight G4 for planes and helis, its not bad.

Try HeliSimRC it's a free-bee . Nothing fancy but is a good start and the price is right. I'll bet I spend at least an hour a day with mine. It really does help teach about the controls and the pendulum/gyroscopic effects.

ClearView RC Flight Simulator

35 helicopter models, 35 plane models and 14 photorelistic sceneries with full collision support
Works with your keyboard, gamepad, USB Tx to PC cable

Works with Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows NT

The flying fields in ClearView are in open "panoramic" format. You can recreate your own flying field using your digital camera
and some free panorama creation software, or enjoy many flying feelds freely available on the net.

ClearView provides ability for two players to set a network session and fly together. Each user flies his own model, but is able to see
and hear the model flown by the other party. This unique capability of ClearView will let you fly together with a friend the same
way you fly with other people in your local club.

download the demo here for free

http://rcflightsim.com

$39.95 to purchase it. this is well worth $39.95

Check to see if the Sim your buying has the models you have or want. The can be fun to fly but NASCAR does not recruit drivers from video arcades. RealFlight G4 is fun and looks great but you need to have a good computer to really enjoy it.

Even though the flight models in the free sims aren't totally realistic they are good enough to start your muscle memory training. This is the part most people have trouble with I think, the training of muscle groups and visual accuteness, and co-ordinating the two. Think about it for a minute, you are learning the same stuff a real pilot has to learn without the benefits that come from a school. This is no mean feat folks! You are all to be applauded for even trying it. I've tried the demo for ClearView and it was cool but it didn't last long enough to really get a feel for it. So far the free-bees have been working for me as I find myself reacting in an automatic fashion sometimes now in situations that a few weeks ago would have had me panicing. Time on any sim I think is good and it beats the crap out of the garbage on TV!!!!

Just out of curiosity, didn't your new heli come with FMS? It should have. It also should have come with the USB cable. There may be dealers out there who take them out of the package and then want you to buy them. I could not get FMS to work. It went through teh entire set up looking OK and then the throttle wouldn't do anything. I downloaded HeliSim RC and got it to work, but it seems super touchy. I cut the throttle to 1/2, used the beginner's sim and still have problems.[]

"Patience grasshopper" LOL As the line from the TV show goes. I run my sim at regular speed and find that just like myHB it only requires small stick movements once you can find that sweet spot.
I did some great bunny hops this morning with my HB and found a sweet spot about chest level. Could still only keep her there for a second or two, but it felt like magic!!! I'm flying with a CA repaired blade holder ball and a ringlink with a corner missing off the circumference right now (waiting for parts) so I'm afraid to take her up any higher. The link can fly off anytime and with my luck it would be at the worst possible moment. It really does help to get the machine up above that ground effects ASAP. I don't punch the throttle but I get that head speed up PDQ, and I get much better control and longer durations of hops.

"I've tried the demo for ClearView and it was cool but it didn't last long enough to really get a feel for it. "

absolutely right, the demo really should last a little longer to allow you to get a better feel for it. However, you do get a feel for the realism of the sim and like i said , i bought it, and once you unlock everything it is really an awesome sim....especially for the amount (small amount) it costs to purchase it. Personally I think the "free" sims like FMS and helisimrc just plain stink. out then what do you expect for "free"