I bought Condor and started using it last night. It does help understand how much and when to use each of the controls, even though the feel of the controls vs. the real thing itself is quite different.

I'm not so much trying to save cost, as much as minimize the time needed to get to the solo point, and hence reduce the wait time for training at the club, but I think the Condor is vastly better than FSX, and does appear to be helpful in that regard. I'm expecting the powered flight to be useful as well.

Again, thanks for all the useful advice.