birdog writes:

Don't know the present reality status of top line simulaters, but recovery
from unusual attitudes involves more than just manipulating the controls.

If you use top-quality add-on aircraft in MSFS, you can get extremely accurate
simulation of instrument behavior.

Because of the high cost of visuals (both in processing time and in the size
of the database required), visuals are still the weakest part of desktop
simulation, although they are good enough to use for pilotage. It's often more
a question of not being pretty rather than not being accurate.

MSFS is not designed to simulate unusual attitudes with high accuracy. X-Plane
is supposedly better, but the flip side is that it is potentially less
accurate with respect to normal flight in specific aircraft, since it spends
more time calculating and less time looking things up in comparison to MSFS.

How one reacts psycologically to suddenly looking straight at the ground, or
the sudden appearence of the inverted treeline is a big factor.

The key is avoidance, not recovery. A pilot who is competent and stays ahead
of the airplane is less likely to find himself in situations that may panic
him. Minimizing accidents means avoiding the situations that lead to them;
trying to recover from those situations after falling into them is much less
effective.

I can't see simulators preparing a pilot for instant and automatic recovery
from unanticipated emergencies - the adrenilin factor just ain't the same.

Simulators normally aren't used that way. Like flight in a real airplane, a
simulator teaches pilots to avoid problems in the first place. Being expert
at recovering from a spin isn't nearly as useful for safety as being expert at
avoiding spins.

Unless convinced otherwise, I can't see pilots EVER stepping directly from a
sim into the left seat.

The day will come. Economics and technology virtually guarantee it. The role
of simulation in all types of training, especially training for operation of
vehicles, has been in constant expansion ever since the first simulators were
built.