I flew Air Combat USA in California a couple of years ago. While I don't have a PPL, my buddy used to run a flight school so I've had a lot of seat time in small aircraft, but none of the classroom instruction. Besides which, I suck at math.
Air Combat USA really helped me to appreciate the physical forces at work when flying combat manoeuvres in a plane. Just for basic concepts, and for a feel for what to do, AH experience was a big help.
I have done lots of track work with race-prepped cars, so I have a good idea of how real-life physical forces and sims compare with each other (i.e. driving at Mosport going hell bent for leather in a 520hp Porsche, and doing it "virtually" in Grand Prix Legends, for instance). The aircraft experience was novel to me, though. The two things that really struck me were:
1) The ease of visibility.
It was really easy to keep an eye on the target. None of this "hat switching" stuff and having to figure out what view to go to -- just move your eyeballs, and if that’s not enough, then your head.
Also, it was very simple to predict the opponent's flight path as it was easy to see his orientation even at a distance. Amazing how much calculation the brain does automatically for things like closing speeds, aspect ratios, lead/lag, etc., even for someone like me that sucks at math.
Unfortunately, there's no way a flat monitor is going to give anywhere close to the "real experience" visually anytime soon. Even if we're supposedly getting close to real-time rendering of photo-realistic terrain and aircraft, that whole 3d thing is a kicker, as are monitors that aren't big enough to allow peripheral vision, thereby requireing field of view adjustments, etc. etc.
2) The G forces and seat of the pants stuff.
I don't think I probably ever pulled more than 3.5Gs (I think the SIAI Marchetti SF-260s are rated to 6), but I sure felt every one. I also hate anything less than 1 G (never mind negative ones!). Even 0G makes my stomach end up in my mouth, and I really don’t like it (more on that later!)... Also, there’s a sense of being "in tune" with the aircraft because every change in its flight aspect can be physically felt. When going back to AH in front of a computer, there's a certain sense of alienation or distancing of events.
Funnily enough, I notice that distancing from reality less in a driving sim, since a lot of track work is about "setting up" the car for a corner, and predicting the car's behaviour throughout it, so as to not be totally surprised when something happens (e.g. expecting the unexpected, but nevertheless somewhat predictable). That part translates really well in a driving sim, though there are obviously less clues about when the car does begin to misbehave, and there's a total absence of steering feedback or weight transfer.
I found a bigger separation from flight sims to my Air Combat USA experience than I do with driving sims and real cars on a track, but maybe that’s just because I have more experience with high performance cars and get the sense of “being there” more easily since I have a much broader frame of reference… I’ll bet that in the SIAI Marchetti SF-260 I was reacting more than predicting, and that’s just as a result of my inexperience. While I quickly feel "at one" with a car, as if it's an extension of me, I don’t do that in a plane – fighter pilots often say that they do, though.
The one thing I can say about the experience, is that it totally changed the immersiveness of flight sims for me for a long while. Eventually it wore off, but for a time after the “combat” experience I would make groaning noises when carving turns in AH, and had a frame of reference for views, ground objects, landings and take-offs, etc. I could really “picture” what I was doing, with real life sensations to back it up. It honestly made the game a totally different experience for me.
As for the flight itself, it was damned cool just to be in a fighter trainer with a parachute and a Mae West on (since we were at the California coast over the Pacific). Looking straight up through the canopy while wearing a helmet with shaded visor and pulling back in the stick and adjusting the lift vector onto target was just too damned cool for words.
I wore my own flight suit, just to add a touch of personal flair (it belonged to an RAF Wing Commander from the 1950s).
Turns out, all its pockets came in handy because I needed sick bags: I threw up
three times in the air. Ugh – and this is after I had had half a Gravol that morning, too. Thankfully, my opponent barfed, too, so there were a couple of times when we just “called it off” to resettle our stomachs, and then started up again.
Since I was in town on business I had a rental car, and offered to drive the “bandit” back to his hotel after the event. I had to pull over and barf once more on that ride, too.
So, for me anyway, I guess it’s both a blessing and a curse that I don’t feel the Gs in AH. He he he. How messy would my keyboard be?
People tell me that you quickly get used to it though – pilots after leave can feel queasy if they’ve been out of the cockpit for a while, and it’s all a matter of getting accustomed to it again... Oddly, enough, I’m fine getting tossed around in cars (as long as I’m driving) and wafting racing fuel… it’s that less than 1G stuff, I tell ya... we don't do that often in cars except going over a rise, or when doing forward flips, I suppose... I don't plan on doing one of those any times soon! 
[knock on wood]
Cheers,
phaetn
