The simulator is great for learning how to "handle" a plane, which is to say, how to turn left or right, how to climb and dive, and like that. Then, it's a MUST for practicing how to FLY a plane- it's much better to do your first 100 crashes in the simulator, because you simply launch the plane again after a crash (for the crash, more expensive simulators even have the plane fly apart and the pieces go bouncing- loads of fun!) BUT- (and that's a big but) the important difference between simulators and planes is this: in the simulator, planes want to fly. In the air, planes want to crash. Even after you've gotten the simulator down like a champ, you can expect to be doing crashing, somewhere between "a little" and "every time you fly the plane", until you get the PLANE figured out. For this reason, I designed my first crash proofing kits, and they're now at the level where they work FAR better than I ever expected. That said, it's also true that some planes are easier to make more resilient than others, because of their specific design and material. The big question: which planes are those?