"Anyone wanting to learn to fly whether in a general aviation or RAA flying school will save money by initially training on a synthetic trainer"
I couldn't think of anything worse for a new student unless you cover ALL the instruments, and even then it would probably involve hours of remedial flying with a folder in front of the instruments once you got in the real thing..
The longer I instruct, the more I see proof that the only important thing is the attitude (IFR or VFR).. even power is secondary to that, cos if you can't hold the aircrafts nose in a steady position in relationship to the horizon no matter what the configuration is, you're gonna battle all the way through your training.
You'd be surprised how many pilots I see who I start flying with well into their training who have this fundamental wrong.