Richard, welcome to a growing force of indomitable fighter plane enthusiasts! A big thank you for everybody else for your edifying thoughts.
One of your interesting questions has not been answered. Of the two Spitfire pilots who learned to fly from the use of computer flight sims, the most interesting one that was a lot of fun to spar with on the big Spit thread was a modeler with the moniker "taran" (see page 36 and earlier - please don't read much further lest the negative vibes of the kind of tyranny that used to rule modeling discourage you like it did almost every other poster on the thread, including my buddie taran.
Please keep on posting.
"Aim high . . . Fly - Fight - Win!"
Out.
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FIGHTERS - AVIATION'S ULTIMATE CALL TO GLORY, HONOR, AND IMMORTALITY - Please see immortality promoting Blog - Rom. 2.