Jose writes:

My gut feeling is that piloting time in a small aircraft is invaluable
experience ...

Gut feelings are unreliable in aircraft.

... and serves to connect the driving of those giant aluminum
tubes full of self-loading cargo with the flying of real airplanes
through the air.

Those giant tubes are just as real as tiny tin cans. Furthermore,
they are so different that I question how much value there is to
learning first in tin cans.

I don't know how one could conduct such a study without trying it. The
proposal seems to be a fair enough way to try it. There will always be
an experienced captain in the cockpit.

Simulation put men on the moon. It must work pretty well.

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