Hi Joe;

This issue will probably be argued forever by everybody involved, :-)))
as there is both a positive and a negative side to the argument as the
issue references the pros and cons of desktop simulator use before and
during flight training.
Aside from what I've already mentioned, what I found in my research on
this was that in the final opinion of the instructors I interviewed and
talked to at various times I've dealt officially with the issue as a
consultant, was that all things considered, the cons outweighed the
pros.
The good side was that as you and another poster have noted, there were
certain "advantages" going into a dual situation for those who had some
sim experience. This "advantage" dealt directly with an improved sense
of systems function, control usage, and instrumentation.
The down side according to the general consensus of the CFI's involved
with my research path was in two distinct areas; 1. Over familiarization
and reliance on control DIRECTION as opposed to control pressures, which
had to be addressed and corrected, and 2. Over concentration on
instruments as opposed to nose attitude in establishing flight attitudes
throughout the flight envelope. In other words, need for correction to
visual cues outside the cockpit.
Keeping in mind that there are always individual cases where these
issues are not as prevalent in one student as they are in another, as
obviously was your situation, what I found when viewing these issues
over a range of students and instructors both exposed and unexposed to a
desktop simulator before entering flight training and during the period
before solo, was that the negatives required extra flight time (an
average of + 2 hours extra dual for our sample test data base) when the
simulator was involved during the periods specified.
Bottom line is that if it works for you, it's a plus, but in my study of
this issue, the negatives indicated that the sim can be a problem for a
pre solo student.
It's not a critical thing, but it's not on the positive side at this
point, as far as I'm concerned anyway.
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/CFI Retired
for private email; make necessary changes between ( )
dhenriques(at)(delete all this)earthlink(dot)net




"Joe Johnson" wrote in message
m...
To Chris & Dudley,

I too got my PP-ASEL recently after years of playing with MSFS. While
I
agree that it does little or nothing to simulate the actual control
inputs
required to fly an airplane, I feel it does nothing to hinder
learning, even
pre-solo. For my part, it took only 10-15 minutes on my introductory
flight
(a couple of "friendly" reminders from my CFI!) to break the habit of
staring at the instruments, look out the window, and start to "feel"
the
aircraft and its controls. On the other hand, I was quite familiar
with the
use of the various instruments, navigation, etc., which knowledge
transfers
essentially unchanged from the sim to the aircraft. On balance, I
think
it's a definite plus.