Excellent advice & support from everyone who replied, I can't thank you all enough, it's re-assuring.
Jabawocky, I don't believe doing a run in FS X will help much, looking out is a major pain and I could never get the lookout to work the way I would like, perhaps it would prove to be useful with 3 displays, the two outside ones could be panned left & right. FS did help initially with radio calls & circuits but the problem with VFR naving in FS is that the detail is very grainy, a decent flight stick is essential if you don't want to juggle between keyboard/mouse & joystick. I would most definately start developing some really bad habits too, the h/w I just mentioned above is also very expensive and that cash could be best spent elsewhere like on a good pair of sunnies or a decent watch. Bullethead, thx for the tip on google earth, I don't know why I never thought of that.
I'm off work for a few weeks just so that I can concentrate fully on my PPL, I'll keep you guys posted on my progress.
Thanks.