Originally Posted by
n5296s
I wouldn't put it quite as brutally as Fly4Business did, but I've never found PC type sims to be of the slightest help for anything. Actually I've never successfully landed an aircraft with one. It's a totally different skill from flying the real thing. Different story if you can use a proper sim with wrap around screens and simulated motion.
One thing I meant to say earlier is, don't do touch and goes. I don't like doing them now, with 1700 hours under my belt. They put way too much stress into the situation, since you've barely landed and now you have to reconfigure the aircraft and switch mental gears to do something quite different. If you have enough runway, do stop and goes. If not, stop and taxi back. Yes, it'll add a bit to your cost, but as you said you're not really getting value for your money at the moment anyway.
Touch and goes are much more common here. I can see your view with perhaps the density altitude making things difficult occasionally, but luckily, we don't have to calculate that as much, if not at all here. My view, operating here is if you land the aircraft with less flap to allow the performance to climb away again, touch and goes are perfectly safe and at a busy airport/airfield. I would rather have someone touch and go ahead. rather than slow down, stop and vacate.