Well said, Sith...well described.

IMO, the sim is EXCELLENT at certain things. It teaches you (or at least taught me and others) :

1) Don't jerk the sticks around. Smooth, easy, slow control inputs result in smooth flight. Banging sticks around result in jerky and ugly flying that leads to trouble.

2) Control reversal. The sim accurately reflects the fact in various attitudes, some flight control surfaces are reversed. Originally, a new pilot may have to THINK about which surfaces are reversed, and how to compensate...but practice will make that second nature. The sim can give you that practice.

3) Muscle memory. It takes constant repitition to make moving the sticks a natural act. Originally, new pilots must again THINK about which stick does what, and which way it needs to go, etc. The sim can again give the new pilot the 'stick time' necessary to make these things second nature.

Sims, however, are lacking in a few key areas as well:

1) As Sith described...while several sims feature exceptional physics, they just don't capture the 'feel' of certain aspects of the overall experience. For example, runways have bumps in certain places, or grass grows differently, or local winds swirl over certain terrain features, etc etc. All of these things make the aircraft behave more 'live' than strict sim physics would dictate.

2) Nerves. Let's not underestimate this factor. Doesn't matter WHO you are, when you have spectators watching, a few hundred dollars of plane on the line, bugs buzzing around, and a REAL plane doing REAL things under YOUR control...it's just different. While it's very true one pilot may respond to said nerves/pressure differently from another, we ALL respond in some way or another...and that 'stress' is different at the airfield than on the sim.

3) Randomness. Things constantly change in the real world. Clouds move, birds wander by, loud vehicles in the background, wind changes, etc etc. It's easy to think that these things don't matter. I have one friend who's learning on a sim. I disliked the cloud display on the sim, so turned it off one time. Afterwards, he found himself having SIGNIFICANTLY more problems landing. We realized it was BECAUSE of the clouds...without realizing it, he was using the repeated (and more importantly CONSISTANT) cloud patterns to frame his turn to final. Random things happen, and they can disorient or distract you at the airfield.

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"How effective at flight simulators?"

IMO, the answer is:

'HIGHLY effective at teaching you the mechanics and tasks of flying.'

'Very INEFFECTIVE at preparing you for the EXPERIENCE of flying.'