My opinion is that learning on a sim is fine... HOWEVER! I feel a person should still seek out an instructor BEFORE their first real flight... The buddy box is optional... Hell when I learned to fly we didn't have them anyway.. The fact is though there are two problems with learning on the sim... FIRST someone needs to evaluate the person and make sure they understand that they are no longer "on a sim"... Property and or people CAN be damaged... Life doesn't have a "spacebar"... SECOND I think it is VITAL that a person learns how to do a pre-flight inspection... Check their plane and their radio before hand to make sure it's functioning properly... Make sure they know the ins and outs of the motor, tuning, etc... These are all things that can't be learned on a sim... As for the actualy flying skills, flight time on a sim is gonna get you the same place flight time on a trainer will... Perhaps even further since you won't be as "afraid" of the sim (i.e. heart skipping beats, palm sweating, fingers twitching, etc...)