i really like to fly with FMS, and most of the time i fly with the little Hughes-Heli (Magnum-Helcopter

I have model-planes, but no Heli until now, and the simulator shows how hard this machines are to handle. I have found out that each landing finishes without breaking the Hughes by letting the model fall the last centimeters. When i try to land "soft", the Hughes often crashes.
Is this true for the real-word, too? How realistic is the simulation compared to real-world model-heli's?
Thanks
Hartmut