I'd go so far as to say that initially using the TIR would actually hurt him rather than help.  I used hat views all the way through AW, for years, and they were great, when I came here about a  year and a half ago, I used hat views to great effect, and had no problems.  When I switched to the TIR after about 6 or 8 months in, I really went to hell in my SA (which is bad to begin with) and my gunnery for about two months or so before I started seeing things get back to normal.  It's a big adjustment to make at first, and since you can move your head off to the side of your sight, it really messes you up for a while until you readjust.  
IMO he'd be a lot better off worrying more about his ACM than he would about TIR.  And, there are some planes that the TIR actually hurts your views a tiny bit compared to the hat views.