I went for an intro lesson in a small fixed wing and was given the controls to do a turn and kept on eye on the VS indicator to keep it level as I did in the SIM, and rolled in and out smoothly maintaining altitude.
The skills translate from sim to real.
Except that in the real world (VFR that is) you wouldn’t need to look at the instruments for a level turn and just keep your eyes outside 
I know what you’re saying. But also that part of flying is relatively easy. A non-simmer would pick that up fairly quickly too.
Not first ever flight.
I think this is the biggest thing with regard to the original question. Until you know what you don’t know, and know how the sim differs, it’s difficult to make perceptions gained from the sim useful. Unless maybe you can watch or work with someone who can explain those things.
Trouble is, that’s not a skill that matters on the first ever flights and by the time you get to needing to do that, everyone else can too. My first few lessons, my instructor had me fly by just looking outside. If he caught me looking at an instrument, he’d cover it with a post-it note. The focus was on scanning for traffic, flying by visual reference and attitude, power, trim (and carb heat). They want you to learn to feel what the airplane is doing; to hear it.
Agree. On that note, a few lessons ago my instructor told me that he’s gonna cover all instruments and wants me to fly in the pattern for a couple rounds. I’d say I’m a fairly average student so I wasn’t convinced that I’ll be able to handle it well. So we approached our home airport after doing some airwork and sure enough, he covers everything but leaves the tach. Long story short, I was within 150ft of pattern altitude and within 2 knots of airspeed on each round. I was amazed how well you can judge airspeed just by the feel of the control forces.
That was my last lesson before the pre-solo phase check my flight school requires. Great confidence boost and I ended up passing the test. Now if you don’t hear anything from me again then my solo probably didn’t go so well
That is all to say that a lot of flying has to do with feel which the sim unfortunately lacks. But still, it can still be valuable but most importantly, it’s fun. I get to fly things I’ll never fly in real life and also visit places I’ll probably never get to fly too.
I was flying in VR before I got my private pilot license 5 years ago. I think I benefited a lot when it came to visual perception. It is the best way to learn to fly because you feel like you are in the plane. I practice most of my landing and departures at different airports before I go to them all the time. I think VR help me in my landings and steep turns during my training.
There is no comparison using visual reference in VR to flat screen.
Helicopters in flat is frustrating, in VR you can build skills quickly.
It it is more transferable to real flying, as you can confirm.
To get your PPL, Flight Sim can only do so much beyond getting you familiarised with how aircraft and its instrument works. But the controls, how it reacts and how your body feels are typically what throw most people off.
Instrument ratings is where most people probably will benefit more.
Rudder (yaw) for me is the single biggest awful thing about every flight sim, from DCS, Il-2, all the way to X-Plane and MSFS. No desktop flight sim ever gets it right.
Other than that it is fine, just don’t treat like you are “extra skilled”, experienced or anything bonus by playing Flight Sim for ### amount of hours. It just doesn’t translate that well, because it depends on how each individual interprets what they get from the Flight Sim. A lot of long time simmers (too long, I guess) - developed a bad habit of overly “smoothing” things out since they often use cheap plastic cupped & spring centered controllers. In several tests recorded for YouTube, the theme with simmer has always been “not enough flare” (planes sink faster in real life, and flight sim that simulates ground effect often overdo it), “not enough bank angle”, “doesn’t use rudder enough to coordinate turn / manage slips” (since rudder mechanics are broken in flight sims).
As for analogy with driving in simulation racing games and real car:
I would say the biggest benefit you can give yourself is start as young as possible.
There was a minor fuss recently when a flight instructor dad posted videos of his 6 year old daughter programming the FMS, AP and doing some basic flying under supervision like rotating for take-off in a Citation. People even claimed it was faked.
The simple fact is a 6 year old will learn to ride a horse, do skateboard tricks and even do trapeze work better than a 16 year old and far far better than someone that is 20 something or older.
The younger you start real world training the better.
Well, i’ve got only one hour in a cessna 172 with an instructor sitting next to me. Just after takeoff he said “you have control” whilst in a slight bank to the left at takeoff power, about 300 feet from the deck.
I probably got that treatment as he was explaining that it had a tricycle landinggear and i opened my big yap that “i had played flightsim”.
Having only flown flightsim and learning from that back then, i started to feel the Yoke, pulling it back some, caused the aircraft to pull into the turn quite a bit harder than i expected, so i learnt in that instant, that the controls should not be handled as quickly as i had been in the sim back then with my various joysticks… but with ever so gentle movements, you feel the airflow that you are trying to disturb.
In the end, i flew almost the entire hour, bar one turn onto Base and one takeover at about 10 feet off the runway, he took control, pushed the throttle, dropped onto the runway, slammed the brakes, to make the first turnoff to the right and then mentioning, that he’s sorry he had to take over, but there was someone behind him in the pattern, that he didn’t want to have to go-around… My friend in the back was pretty certain he wouldhave let me land it, as i was in line, on speed and stable on final, about to land on the numbers… all the traits i’ve learnt in flightsim. … This was in 2008. Sadly the intructor died one-and-a-half years later in a tragic incident (not aircraft related, but party-stupidity)
I had no troubles following his instructions, except for tipping the wing over to the right, to stay in the pattern… i cannot see these “invisible lines” whilst they fly that pattern daily, so i banked slowly, followed by an “i have control”, a 45 degrees bank, which felt to a rookie like me like 90 degrees, followed by a “you have control”…as he leveled the wings on the base leg.
So yeah, Flightsim had definately helped me understand the basics of flight, the instruments, the landing, ils approaches, feeling for height but nothing, and i mean nothing according to the official books you need to actually learn flying. So, i have hundreds of hours in the various flightsims since Flightsim 3/4 and il2, and one hour in the real thing, and i can tell you, it definately helps to understand ALOT of things. Other official things, just need to be learnt the official way, to do it correctly each and every time that person gets anywhere near an actual aircraft… as it’s not just understanding physics and instruments, what i showed that one hour actually piloting the real thing.
So, good luck on your quest and thanks for asking.
I’ll never forget it, Martijn, thanks for the awsome flightlesson. R.i.P. Sir!
Woof ~ Woof & Salute!
Steiny
I concur with most of the experience shared in this thread, and I’d like to add that it is not only theoretical knowledge and practical skills that you’ll have to acquire, but you are also entering a highly regulated and professional environment. In my experience, the actual flying - where a simulator may help to a certain degree - is the easiest part. Learning to handle your aircraft inside the hangar with other planes stacked tightly around, dealing with technical issues during preflight (go/no go), ATC, weather (again: go/no go), regulations (there are countless) and many more aspects can best be learned while you’re at it.
So my 2 cents: For a VFR license it is not worth putting a lot of hours on a sim, but once you are progressing and instrument procedures become important, it may be beneficial.
it’s useful because i can crash the plane as many times as i want without the FAA getting all up in my business.
Oh and i can tell the passengers in the back to sit down and shut up without being suspended for conduct unbecoming of a captain.
Clearly you brought some good experience from your sim flying over to the aircraft. And it helped!
But, interestingly, this can also be seen as an example of some of the pitfalls of doing so.
In addition to what was mentioned above about using primarily outside references for VFR flying, the VS, and I assume you mean VSI in this case, is what is called a, “performance instrument”.
So, in a manner of speaking, it doesn’t so much tell you what you are doing, as much as how well you are doing it.
Old/basic VSIs lag. And even modern Instantaneous VSIs (called IVSIs) can lead to “chasing the VSI”. Which is just another form of PIO.
So, generally speaking, what is considered “proper” technique, is to set power and attitude, then monitor performance. This as opposed to flying primarily by reference to the performance instruments themselves.
This is a particularly insidious temptation of flight sims, whose attitude reference is often as small as or smaller than many real world standby instruments, making that big VSI needle exceedingly tempting, especially if lag isn’t particularly well modeled.
But this is an example of exactly the kind of thing that “makes sense” in the sim, but may not be the best piloting technique.
Certainly no offense intended to anyone, including myself at times, who does this. 
The VSI, in particular, is the single-most common instrument that simmers fixate on when transitioning to real-world flying. It’s also misunderstood, in terms of how it works with the calibrated leak. Heck, I see/hear of people fixating on it in the sim without understanding the repercussions. Once a person figures out that they can lock in a climb/descent rate, especially using autopilot, the interrelated concepts of pitch, power, and airspeed go right out the window.
Like I’ve said elsewhere, I remember someone asking where the “rate hold” was on a non-AP Warrior back in the late 90’s, and that person had a really hard time learning how to fly because of prior sim experience (and lack of ability to grow). But for every negative measure, I’m sure there are as many positives.
Anyway, there really needs to be more focus on this in the world of “simstruction,” whatever form that may take.
Sim can really help improve multitasking (procedures, navigation, coms, situational awareness etc)
Important to always have some spare brain capacity to stay ahead of things.
I started ground school at PAE a few weeks ago, and as a rabid sim pilot this subject has been on my mind. I take pride in the fact that I’m almost to 700 hours in MSFS, with scenarios ranging from the impossible, to the careless, to the “kinda high”, to the “somewhat plausible IRL”. I think of FS as my personal aviation laboratory, as well as my fantasy league escape. I can practice dialing in VORs in the 152, or I can hop into the F104 and fire myself into the stratosphere like a rocket. But how does FS benefit student pilots?
Now for the things FS does not give you.
The breadth and complexity of the subject matter one must study to obtain a private pilot’s certificate is almost unbelievable. It’s a testament to the engineering prowess of Asobo/Microsoft, and the many talented developers, engineers, and artists creating today’s virtual aircraft and aircraft accessories, that FS can reach such heights of reality. MSFS provides virtual pilots with the ability to fly over imagery of real geography, with real weather, in real time, with ATC in AI form, or with live people in VATSIM, using emulations of the most complex aircraft and avionics available. So that’s impressive. At the end of the day, I think a practical student pilot can use FS as a laboratory, and that judicious use of the sim can truly enhance one’s learning experience. The potential pitfalls are well-known (developing bad habits such as over-reliance on instruments), but hyperfocusing on the VSI when trimming is necessary in the sim, because the seat of your pants is sitting on a static office chair and your yoke is sadly unable to communicate the required information to your fingertips. So voila, a bad habit is born. Anywah that is my $2.00 worth (partly because of inflation, partly because I’m wordy today).
I’ve read that so much I may have gone the opposite route and have gauge avoidance. At least when doing landing patterns. Luckily the airspeed indicator is a quick glance.
This past weekend I simmed patterns with another player in VR and I was shocked by the additional workload of maintaining visual of him and doing radio calls. It became way more tiring.
I feel a little foolish talking to myself but I’m working on position and pattern announcements.
Bad habits from MSFS use to watch out for:
100% agree. Words of wisdom from an experienced, RL GA Pilot, both here in the forum, and on his
CharlieFox00 Twitch Stream
(where you can actively interact with him --) he is always open to discuss almost anything GA aviation.
