Thank you AN2 Driver for your detailed post. You certainly do appear to go against the grain in this thread and give plenty of justification for your particular stance. As stated in my previous post I agree that photorealism and powerful P.C's have made FS a very"realistic" environment. Certainly in my case, if I were never to begin flying for real I would continue to invest in FS, such is my passion for aviation. I will certainly PM you if I need any particular assistance and thanks for the offer. I will fly on Sunday ( Lesson 3) and intend to have a chat with my instructor to determine how he positions himself in relation to FS and PPL. I'll keep all posted.
BTW, I don't normally venture away from the "Rumours" threads where I mostly observe ( too many "experts") but I am glad I found "Private Flying" , there appears to be a fairly active "non expert" community here.