'PhilipG' you have a misunderstanding about the F-35 Simulators (there are at least three kinds but one is flown by ordinary pilots in the large form FMS (Full Mission Simulator) with two smaller variations which are either portable or just small form factor (compared to full FMS size). These FMS replicate the aircraft faithfully and are updated along with the actual aircraft flight control laws if they change along with any other flight parameters that need to be changed (discovered during testing). Why is that not good enough?
The latest LM 'Fast Facts' PDF dated 12 Jun 2013 is here:
https://www.f35.com/assets/uploads/d...tsjune2013.pdf (0.2Mb)
On page four of five it states: "...
The F-35 flies supersonic for the first time ..." Searching the internet you will discover that it has flown slightly beyond M1.6 limit these days. All KPPs are being met. The F-35C transonic roll is being tested for solutions (with/without upper wing spoiler). Ordinary pilots are not able to fly to the aircraft limits ,as we know, until cleared by test pilot testing and regulation in future.
On page one: "...Last month, the F-35B performed its
400th vertical landing and first vertical take-off. (May 10 –VTO and May 14 400th)..."
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And to add to 'Pontius' comment above, it has been made clear by test pilots and COs and instructors etc. that the F-35 has been made easy to land (especially the F-35B) so that pilots concentrate on the mission and not the landing phase. Col. Tomassetti has a good recent quote there:
The F-35B Coming to the MAGTF: “Turbo” Reflects on the Past and the Future of USMC Aviation 27 Jun 2013
"...SLD: From the time you flew the X plane, which is now in the Smithsonian, to the reality of an F-35B, what’s the biggest difference concerning what you imagined and what you actually see on the flight line?
Turbo: [Col. Tomassetti] We wanted to build an airplane that was easy to fly and an airplane that was easy to maintain. If you build an airplane that’s easy to fly, your accident rate comes down. Your requirements for training come down. And in the long-term life of an airplane, if you can reduce those two things, the cost of everything comes down.
And what we can do today with fly-by-wire technology digital flight controls is, again, it’s leaps and bounds over where we were 20 years ago when we first started with fly-by-wire airplanes.
Right now, we have an airplane that the pilot says I want to go here, I want to do this, and the computers make all that happen. And the airplane goes where you want it to go.
And I think as much as we hoped for that, we all knew that that’s a hard thing to make happen. It sounds like a very simple concept; build an airplane that’s easy to fly, why don’t we do that all the time? Well, in practice, it’s very complicated because airplanes today are complicated machines.
And we demand a lot out of them in today’s environment. The fact that we’ve achieved that is great....
...I think we’re getting to that point with the block 2 airplanes where some of those capabilities are available. Even if it’s just available in the simulator for a few months before it’s out there on the flight line, those folks are starting to figure out how are we going to teach somebody electronic attack type capabilities in the simulator because it works in there in the beginning...."
The F-35B Coming to the MAGTF: ?Turbo? Reflects on the Past and the Future of USMC Aviation | SLDInfo