All, although I am a "real" airline pilot in my "real" life, I have spend the last 12 years expanding my experience on PC based flight sims. And yes, there are so many things I have learnt from real flying that I wouldn't have learnt from a flight sim. But there are about twice as many things I learned from flying sims. Their versatility and realism are still a great help to improve my flying skills. Recently I bought X-Plane, a flight sim that uses actual aerodynamic laws and blade element method to calculate the aircraft behaviour.It also alows you to change a lot of aircraft caracteristics. This sim has given me a much deeper understanding of aerodynamics. Flying in a regional airliner, I often see peoples skills and understanding of principles of flight deteriorate as they fly longer. If more pilots would open their minds and understand the benefits flight sims could give us, I think the whole aviation comunity would gain from that. If you stop looking at fs's as a toy, and start to use them as a tool to improve your skills and understanding, you'll know what I mean...