Kev writes:

That's a good point. While you can pick out some landmarks on a sim
screen, it's very difficult to constantly rotate your view around and
get the spatial relationship that you can in real life.

True. You can look to the side or outwards at a few different angles,
but it's not instantaneous.

However, parts of the aircraft block a lot of the view when you're not
looking straight ahead, and those parts would still be there in real
life, so I still wonder about real-world visibility.

Yes, things can move quickly. That's why it takes training to become a
real life pilot. The latter must learn to be constantly aware of the
airplane's location and heading, and to stay one or more steps ahead of
the plane. It's a skill that can get rusty, for sure.

A few days ago I switched tasks to read a chart (I have to visit a Web
page for that--very awkward) and returned to the sim to discovered
that I had hit a mountain. I was checking to see if I was at a safe
altitude. Fortunately, a new Baron was waiting for my reincarnated
self at my home airport.

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