I never learned to fly on a sim just because they werent around when I started flying and that was only 12 years ago. The question remains would I have gotten a sim instead of a real plane to learn if I could go back and do it again. The answer NO. However I would of gotten the Sim along side of the real plane. I believe that the Sim is agreat learining tool and I have seen guys at our field who have bought one spent 2 months on it purchased an RTF trainner fron RCU and soloed in a day at our field. Now my issue becomes that this new piliot has no practical knowledge of saftey, crises, and or "pucker factor management" As I like to call it. So I do think there are distinct pros and cons but a sim IMO at any stage of learning is invaluable. I love them.