Absolutely not the same-everybody telling you otherwise doesn´t know what he´s talking about it.
The sim is a great procedural trainer-but not good when you get close to the ground…..and that´s the most important part of the auto…
I have been there-in the military, and in the civil world…..there is no way around autos "all the way"……
Get a "cheap" piston of SET-and let them do it over and over and over again….