I have very extensive experience as a flying instructor and instrument rating examiner.

Being a proficient instrument pilot involves the development of a proper scan technique and good situational awareness.

This may only be achieved in an aeroplane, not on a computer screen.

A proper flight simulator is also a good tool for practice.

I had quite a lot of flight simulator time prior to getting my PPL, and I'm sure this is true for many if not most computer literate people these days. I didn't find it held me back, in part because I followed the teaching exercises that came with flight simulator rather than just burning holes in the sky. I can appreciate that it could easily be misused though.

Since then, I've found it useful for practicing navigation - some of the VFR scenery packages are very good and as a low airtime pilot it's good to be able to get to know some of the landmarks in advance.

Some of the flight simulator adventures are very well thought out in my view.

There's one where you fly a twin for a dodgy outfit delivering apples to a ski resort. After flying for long enough to appreciate that your partner doesn't take safety very seriously (not checking notams, poor maintainence, low flying etc...) he steps out of the plane, and you're briefed to fly back to base. You have an engine failure shortly after take-off, but are goaded to continue. You 'win' by disregarding the briefing and landing at the nearest airport.

There's another where you're on a rescue mission for someone who's lost in the Rockies. The weather's lousy. The air's thin, and I have never managed to complete it without getting trapped in a valley or stalling in. Good point well made, if you approach it in the right frame of mind.

I agree it's very poor for some things. I bought an add-on Tomahawk as it was the aircraft I learned in. The flight simulator model was completely benign in the stall. I think I shall get some IMC lessons before doing any of the instrument flying exercises.

Excellent idea.

I used xplane 10 as a training tool during my IMC training- this was with a Carenado Archer with VOR/ADF/DME fit.

Weather can be setup for minima (even below IMC :D ) and you can practice NDB, ILS approaches, hold patterns all day long without paying your local aerodrome + burning a hole in your pocket for fuel...

It helped me build up a good instrument scan , gain confidence with NDB tracking , flying accurate hold patterns and according to my "real" IMC instructor demonstrated a real benefit.

On xplane you can also "fail" out instruments to really give yourself a challenge !

I found it invaluable while getting my instrument rating.

I spent 8 hours in an "approved" simulator and got nothing better out of that, at $38 an hour plus instructor fees, than I did from FSX.

Setting up IFR flights in the sim worked pretty much like the real world and flying ILS approaches actually seemed a lot easier in the real thing. I probably spent 40-50 hours doing this while doing the actual flight training. One difference: real world instruments aren't nearly as accurate!

Many CFI's don't like sims, for obvious reasons - they don't get hours in their logbooks. Ignore those opinions - if you treat this as a training tool and not just a game for messing around, it is very useful.