You won't find anything close to the real thing for free. I own a heli, and when I learned to hover, it was scary. I got RealFlight G2, and spent many, many hours to master the heli before I took my real one out again.
Learning the hover, nose right, nose left, nose out, and nose in, will cost you well over 2 gallons of fuel. Next you have to learn how to do an 'engine out' autorotation landing before you can start to fly.
Helis are costly, and just like a real one, require a great deal of maintenance and inspection.
Any software you can pirate or download will be more like a game, and not a simulator. RealFlight G2 is for real, and if you're serious about getting a heli, I would strongly advise that you get the program first. You might get irritated when you see how difficult they are to learn on, and save yourself the cost and damage of trying to learn on an R/C heli.
The are amazing flying machines when you learn how to do it. You might want to visit a local flying field and talk to the heli fliers there. The planes are a great way to start, so you might want to look into those first.
G2 comes with an exact radio with a USB interface, so every thing is exactly as it would be in real. There are also planes as well as helis. It's about $220, but you're not paying for fuel or damage.