Everyone I talked to at the NW Houston RC Club field agree with what you're saying. What they do is practice a new maneuver on the sim until they're comfortable with it, then try in on the real thing. The idea is to train your body and mind to react properly so that you will react properly to the real deal and hopefully will know what to do if things go wrong.

Makes sense to me! Better to crash with simulated $$$ than the real ones.

I once had a musician tell me that he had to play the same song 1000 times before playing in front of a live audience. Practice practice practice!

Mack