Dear a
In terms of cancelling or deleting things youve learnt on FS, there is no silver bullet. however, it can be completly overcome if you take full advantage of the time you have in the air...
I am not an instructor, i am a student as well.
I didnt start using FS2002 until after i finished my PPL so i learnt to fly without it but hopefully i can help.
i might first suggest that you not use flight simulator for a while. the reason for this is; you may be picking up bad habits which could be cancelling out the good work your instructor is providing for you. It's not forever, i have found FS immensly helpful for more advanced stages of learning. if you can find an instructor who is personally experienced with PC flight simulators, he will be able to tell you when that is
For the rudder, the key is in looking closley at and picking a point on the horizon and practising using the rudder to keep the nose fixed on that point on the horizon.
If you fixate on keeping the tip of the nose pointed to that point on the horizon on takeoff, climb, cruise, everything, you should improve markedly.
eg: in the climb after takeoff, you are supposed to use right rudder because of low speed/high power, yeah? well if you look at the horizon while you are climbing and the nose is drifting off to the left, you arent using enough right foot/rudder. if its drifting off to the right, youre using too much. avoid using ailerons for these small corrections while dual, practise 'locking' the aileron in place during the climb like so:
your right hand should be on the throttle. the thimb of your left hand should be curled around the apex of the "L" shape of the left side of the control column, hand in a fist-shape and the pinkey resting on your knee.
this will help you resist 'waggling' the ailerons.
it sounds really basic but perhaps your experience with flight simultor has caused you to not concentrate so much on isolating a point on the horizon to steer towards. This might be because of a lack of graphical detail on the simulated horizon.
when it comes to climing and decending, and straight and level for that matter. for me the key is in how far above the top of the compass or dashboard the horizon is. also, listen closly to the engine, get to know what it sounds like when its cruising along straight and level. if you start an involuntary climb, it will begin to sound a bit slower and obviously if youre decending, it will start to sound like its going a bit faster. these things are corrected with the elevator. if the engines labouring, look out at the horizon and i bet you 99% you are in a slight climb.
horizon