I offer a challenge to anyone who knocks MSFS. Practice slow flight and or steep turns in flight simulator until you can perform them to PTS. I promise it won't be easy. Later that day go and do them in the plane. You will be amazed at how easy that is, even though the sim didn't fly like the plane.
Now for a pre-private learning steep turns for the first time - maybe not a good idea. But for anyone who has learned the maneuver and is trying to clean it up in preperation for a checkride, give em a try in flight simulator, then hit the real plane, and you will make amazing progress toward consistanly staying within PTS.
Landing practice admittedly isn't great for FS, but if you have rudder pedals it is good for practicing crosswind approach to the runway, including forward slip to no flap approach which FS helped me a lot with. Some people have had some luck practicing chandelles or lazy 8s, I haven't. Steep spirals or ground reference maneuvers really cannot be done at all in FS. FS planes don't seem to stall right, so practicing stalls isn't that helpfull, but steep turns, slow flight, and possibly chandelles and lazy 8s or crosswind landing approaches can be practiced.
Another good application is cross country flying. You'd be surprised how close the landscape is in FS2004 to the actual terrain. As a pre-private I'd fly my cross countries the day before in FS to test out my flight planning. Each time going some place I'd never been felt very familiar to me after flying the route in flight simulator. One time I discovered that my cruising altitude would have put me into a mountain. Granted I'm sure my instructor would have caught that, and I probably would have too as we would have approached the terrain, it was good that I learned that lesson safley on the ground.
Many times my instrusctors have told me that they had never seen so much overnight improvement. Those were the nights I practiced in fligth sim. The reason it works is because it does not fly like a real plane. Take away the tactile sense and it is much harder to control the plane. Once you are comfortable without it, go back in the plane and so how easy it is to have that tactile sense back. Its like shooting an approach full panel after perfecting it partial panel.
Speaking of which - there is no disputing its value for any kind of instrument practice. Instrument flying is 99% procedural. You don't need a plane to learn that. Having trouble with an approach? - position yourself at the IAF, shoot the approach, then put yourself back at the IAF to try it again. Shoot it 5 times partial panel to minimums and you'll impress the hell out of your instructor and save yourself lots and lots of $$. Try it with hold entries, DME arcs, intercepting and tracking courses, anything you can think of. Not only saves you time in the plane, it actually saves you clock time. It will take less time to practice the stuff int he sim because you don't have to taxi to the runway, do a runup, takeoff, land, or fly enroute to whre you need to go. Just put yourself there.
It is a great tool, don't underestimate it. And even if it dosn't work for you, that dosn't mean it won't work for anybody. It has helped me a lot and saved me a lot of $$.
