Originally Posted by
Flyhayes
Do not try to teach yourself instrument flying on flight sim! You'll only wind up teaching yourself bad habbits and incorrect teqnique that you'll spend more money with an instructor trying to reteach you properly.
But he is not teaching himself, he has text books that explain instrument flying. Instrument flying has not changed much in the past 50 years, so learning your scan on a computer should translate to the actual aircraft well.
For me, before every new rating/certificate, I read all the required material, then I reread it and made sure I understood everything. Then before each lesson, I would fly it on a computer. So when I got into the actual aircraft, nothing felt new and I could focus on the details. But as stated before, each person learns differently.
While it is possible to learn bad habits on your own, in my experience, you can learn just as many bad habits from a CFI. The takeaway from that is to be flexible.