Mike Young writes:

Do you mean, unlearn basic airmanship before you can get proficient on
instruments?

Basic airmanship is independent of sensation. The sensations pilots feel are
unreliable. They consider them reliable because they unconsciously reinforce
them with visual information, which usually _is_ reliable. Proof that
sensations are useless is easy to obtain, by depriving the pilot of visual
references. No matter how much experience he has, without instruments he
rapidly becomes disoriented. If sensations were reliable, that wouldn't
happen. And since in fact they are unreliable, learning about them isn't
really important, as they won't help you to fly.

Think of the instrument rating as meaning only that you are qualified to
operate as the controllers ask, without continual hand holding. Staying
upright and pointed in the desired direction is only incidental to that.

IFR can exist independently of controllers.

In that regard, sim flying is the antithesis of fitting into the airspace
system.

Not when it is simulation of instrument flight and ATC.

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