Hi Rainboe,
Actually, I use a flight yoke and pedals so it's really the opposite - I fly the Airbuses with these even though I can use my joystick with the Airbuses.
As for the boy, it's probably not surprising he was so good at the
"instrument panel " part of aircraft operations for in FS2004, the panels from some of the add-on products are extremely detailed and I've heard from real-life pilots of the GA smaller aircraft that the panels if flight simulator are basically the same as the real thing.
But you certainly don't have to feel like people who do simming would feel no respect for real-life pilots. I have the utmost of respect and admiration for pilots for flying the real thing, first of all, has the feel of it (flying by the seat of your pants as it is called I believe) which we simmers lack - no movement or inertia or the vibration and noise of the aircraft's engines and systems. Second, we don't have to worry about real passangers - people whose lives depend on the pilot and co-pilot with every flight; and finally, the air traffic in commercial aviation in the real world must be a real adventure sometimes to handle and not lose one's cool! I mean, in really busy airports like Atlanta Hartsfield, Chicago O'Hare, LAX, JFK, even Toronto Pearson - must be a challenge sometimes to approach in just the correct speed behind several other aircraft, while making sure you are oriented correctly with the glidescope and localizer etc...
Your point about the stability of modern aircraft is well-taken. he flight modeling of even some payware aircraft and/or the calibration of my flight yoke/pedals (I'm still trying to adjust my yoke/pedals) has some undesirable effects on my aircraft like an oversensitive rudder. I had a feeling, after reading so many posts, that Flight Simulator has some ways to go before the aircraft behave as stably as they do in the real world ... but I think I will adjust down my rudder and yoke sensitivity this week to see if this corrects the problem.
John