My son learnt to fly on the very first rc simulator ever produced. This was RC Aerochopper on the Atari at a cost of £199!! The graphics were very very basic with no photographic type background to speak off just triangular trees and brown for the ground and blue for the sky. Later on we bought an upgrade for PC which made the graphics a little better. He started out practising flying planes and very soon mastered it. One time we went out to our local flying club and he kept asking me if he could have a go at flying our Super 60. I told him it was too difficult but in the end I let him have ago. Well he took off, flew a couple of circuits and landed it successfully and this was his very first attempt. Obviously tiime on Aerochopper had proved invaluable. Later on he started practising flying helicopters on the simulator. He very soon got to the stage where he was able to fly inverted, loops, rolls, nose in circles etc. He then went on to practise doing auto rotations. I decided to buy him a Concept 30SR for his birthday as he had shown so much flare and when he took this model out he was hovering and flying small circuits with a training hoop attached. However the hoop was removed on the third outing and he started flying big circuits, rolls , loops. Having mastered autos on the simulator he went out and performed his very first one with complete success. First steps into autos usually result in quite a few crashes!! He got to the stage when he would fly the helicopter until it ran out of fuel and then auto it down. I would say that using a simulator is an excellent way to learn how to fly..
