I spend some time this evening to check RC simulations, and find a couple of them, some of which seem to be extremely realistic and are said to be used by world professionals in real RC flying to train instead of risking their expensive "playtoys". the real professional ones are using the control units of the real thing that is cinnected via adapter to the simulation, and offer fotorealistic grafics.
Download and install the ClearView installation that I have olinked above. It has a trial time. when starting the sim, go to the menu bar on top and select "demo", which gives you a fullscreen recording of two flights, a plane indoor amongst them which is spectacular, and photorealistic. As I said above, just don't expect to be able to fly this by a gamepad - gamepads are like trying to focus a microscope by using a huge hammer on the focussing wheel.
There is an even "better" sim out there, which costs a hefty 200 dollars, which they quote to be the best there is. The price is what it is because the special RC controller (the huge thing you see in the pics) is included, a replica of real RC controllers being used in real life.
Before ruining several pricey models in real life while still learning to control these fast, agile beasts, or before trying out new stunts, checking you skills with these tools definitely sounds like a reasonable and clever option.
http://www.realflight.com/
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=770999
advert video, showing the hardware as well:
Realflight videos:
Clearview videos:
Böh - I started this thread more joking than being serious - and now I find myself seriously interested...!?
