Joking aside, given that we'll soon have so few flying stations, a "station flight" would be a good idea (and not too expensive…honest). Potentially retention positive (working towards licenses perhaps) and for the Typhoon force in particular, a convenient way of moving people/parts from CGY to Lossie and Warton. A King Air as the modern day Anson and a couple of 120TPs (or, whisper it, soon to be surplus Tucanos) as tools and toys - especially for those in non-flying command posts in the Stn/Force HQ. Check-outs and back seats given for good behaviour - a bit like the recce Gazelles we used to have. With a general reduction in the amount of flying during training, for some aircrew, access to the like of the KA/Tucano would serve to broaden and develop their airmanship. For Odiham crews they could use them to fly between Odi and Benson to use the CAE Sim…save that awful drive through Reading….Sigh, not in this climate I'm afraid…..
As for Sim vs real, the new buzz is LVC - Live/Virtual Construct where in the (simulated) sunny uplands of the future the likes of TLT/Nitex will be flown by crews in both real and simulated aircraft - achieving that collective training "tick". From my experience of instructing in the Sim, the key, as Timelord suggests, was total immersion and a proper plan/brief cycle - including breaking away from 2 hour sorties. Some of the 4hr + multi-ships we did got really convincing as the crews "suspension of disbelief" became deeper, and the training, as a result, became even more valuable.