There are some big differences:
in real life you must more work together with aileron and rudder as in FS, specially crosswind landing.
Also you don't feel the wind, air holes wind shares in front of your pc.
The movements in FS are faster: right left, pitch up , down, stall ! steep turns,...
Aircrafts procedure in FS is pretty good like setting trust for t/o or landing, flaps effects,..., but you don't have to push 20-40 buttons like in a real airplane ;o))
I have had maybe over 1000 hours in flying with the FS98- 2004 till I began may REAL PILOT education as a student. Of course my teacher was suprised to know a lot of staff and flying , but VFR is so much different in real life than in FS, also the power what you feel if you have strong wind. A big difference is the landing than t/o , specially when you come close to the touchdown point and you have to start your flare, which is not close real in the FS like in real life.
Big Jets: The most of us have a normal panel view (or you flying the A310 from SAW?) and we know our "10" buttons which we have to push. But it is more than this in real life to land a big one , when the real pilots got sick ;o))
We don't know and use for example: APU Bleed, XFeed, Pack Valve, FCU,....,...in FS Believe me this warning sound in a big one, if you forget to press a button or the right one, makes you crazy and you can't press just off ;o))) But with a intro from the tower, yes it would be possible that the autopilot can land a B747, when we pressed the button ;o))
See you guys bye Mav :>