writes:

There's a right way and several wrong ways to do just about
anything. Would you like to go under the knife wielded by a surgeon
who learned his craft on a surgery simulator? Ride in a bus driven by
a guy who learned to drive on a desktop sim?

Ask some professionals if they've ever used simulation, and you may be
surprised. It isn't limited to pilot training.

We use sims in flight training. The big difference is that the
student is under the tutelage of an instructor who has spent
considerable time learning things the right way himself, and
understands the importance of the student's learning things properly.
The student already has actual flight time when he sits at the sim and
so understands much more about what he's doing. And why it needs to be
done a certain way. If he doesn't do thing right, he'll not pass the
flight tests and will likely be an incompetent pilot.

Do you have test performance figures and accident rates for pilots who had
used a desktop simulator vs. those who had not, prior to in-aircraft training?