Aaron Coolidge wrote:

Michael I totally agree with you. I hired a CFII and picked up my airplane
in Los Angeles as a 75-hour PP. We flew 2 days (almost 25 hours) of actual
instrument time to get the plane back to Mass. This was a most beneficial
experience.

Okay, well, I'll defer to your experience. Most of my non-training IFR
flights have involved a lot of straight and level, with the occasional
maneuver mixed in just to keep me awake. For early training, this seems
like a lot of wasted time. But if you got a lot out of it, then who am I
to argue?

To this I should add that my CFII took an instrument student on an actual
flight that was not as I described above. He flew from CDW to MMU (about 5
miles), flew multiple approaches, and then went back to CDW. I'm
astonished that TRACON accomodated this in IMC, but it does show that
actual flying can be set up to involve little straight and level.

- Andrew