Troubles with point of view

I have played a few games with fairly realistic heli controls... the first one was BattleField 1942 with the DesertCombat mod -- maybe not super realistic, but the way that inertia and balance and the way that the controls were set up in the helicopters in that mod were fairly realistic. Recently I have played with a free helicopter game I found on the net in which you fly a r/c copter and perform certain tasks -- I beat it and went back and got a "Perfect" on all the tasks which unlocked other helicopters in the game.

The problem with those is that I was flying from the point of view of either the cockpit or a following camera so that controling the copter, I could push forward to go forward in my view. With a real r/c copter, if it's facing towards you, pushing forward actually moves the copter closer to you instead of away from. I have this problem with r/c cars too... when it comes towards me I tend to turn right when I want to turn left.

I don't know if it's just a matter of practice(I haven't really played with many real r/c vehicles), so I was wondering if others have had this problem and learned to pilot from the perspective of the copter instead of themselves or whether there are just certain tricks to avoid the problem of having the controls seem reversed or if the people who get into r/c are just naturally able to pilot from the perspective of the craft they're piloting.

I have RealFlight G3, and I can fly the helis in that simulator fairly well as long as the heli is facing away from me or if I switch to cockpit view. I've been working on hovering with the copter facing me, but I tend to not do very well. I have been getting better I think... it's just a bit frustrating to know I can fly it, but not while it's facing me.

You are trying to do the hardest thing there is in learning to fly a heli,nose in is the last hover position to learn first is tail in then left and right side in and finally nose it.If you can hover tail in with no movement then try left side and right side in with starting with one side in and then turning the heli with the tail rotor to the other side in after you master this with no movement then move to nose in.
You are getting ahead of your self in the learning process and remember to fully learn one position before you move on this will take some time but before you know it you will be doing forward flight and 3D flying and then you will be ready to move to the real thing.This hobby takes years to master so do not be in a hurry but you are starting out the right way.GOOD LUCK

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. I can hover mostly still tail in... it's kinda difficult to get it entirely still b/c I have a little trouble telling if I'm slightly moving with a video screen -- no depth perception. I can keep it in kind of a sloppy hover and keep it from crashing during side-in flight, but I have a little trouble switching from side in on one side to side in on the other side. I'm getting there.

I am not sure if I will actually buy a heli -- I've found in the past that I quickly loose interest with r/c vehicles and they end up just taking up shelf room. It'd be a lot of money to spend on a pretty shelf object.

When doing tail in turn the heli ever so slightly to be able to look down the side of it this will help also there is a box that can be brought up on the screen that tells if you are gaining forward speed keep it at zero and you know that it is a stable hover.I think that the box is in the virtual heli instructor area I don't quite remember since I sold my copy of G2.I was becoming to dependent on it and it was taking away from my real flying.
Also if you ever try flying the real thing you will be hooked there is nothing like it I ran Nitro monster trucks and got bored with it but every time I take off and fly it is like a new rush comes over me believe me if you keep going like you are you won't really have the troubles most do that get bored with it and drop it you will stick with it because the better you get the better you fly and the more you can do.Keep it up and do not rule out trying the real thing you will not be disappointed believe me. This is one of mine it is a JR Voyager E that has been modified and it is a Electric I love it