"Dave" wrote in message news:aNq%c.1509$sS4.87@trndny03...

Although your motorcycle skills and experience would most certainly have
had a positive effect on accelerating the learning process in the
airplane, the actual effect of flying a desktop simulator would have
limited effect. It's true that the simulator would have taught you the
basic DIRECTION of movement for each control, and that would be a
positive, but for the actual purpose of flying an airplane, it's
PRESSURES and RATES that are the pertinent factors, NOT direction!



This has made me rethink a little. My time windsurfing surely helped in
this regard.

I agree. I liken flying more to sailing than anything else. The
basic concepts of passing air over a movable surface to give lift (in
the air planes case) or thrust (in the sailing sense) are almost
identical. The other thing that struck me as being almost identical
was that if you make a change in trim in either case the craft takes a
moment to 'settle' into its new configuration. I spent a bit of time
chasing dials when I first flew until I made this connection to
sailing. Also the notion of 'staying ahead' of what the craft is
doing is identical (although its far easier to do in a
yacht/windsurfer than it is in a plane IMO, but thats debateable).