Has anyone tested this? Not an easy thing to do organise I'm sure lol, but would a good F4 keyboard warrior actually be able to fly a F16?

Just a thought, ignore me if I'm talking crap

Only if he stays at a Holiday Inn Express.

sure if they went an joined the AF and went through the many years of training..

But I beleive we would probally have better luck flying a drone plane..

I remember that Gilman Louie, the programmer of the original Falcon, actually got a bit of flight time in a real F-16 trainer. I read an interview with him about the experience many years ago. So yes, a flight simmer would most probably be able to fly a real F-16. Of course, there's a world of difference between merely "flying" and actually "operating" a combat aircraft.

I've flown gliders on several occasions and while it is certainly different than a playing a flightsim, it's not actually THAT different.

I guess I'm talking about the whole experience, though, from ramp start, to landing. Take away any mechanical failure or possibility of death, would you be able to start, taxi, take off, shoot a naughty Mig and land?

Well, we might be able to get it off the ground but once we do, I'm sure most of us would black out and not be able to handle the G-Forces. Remember, these planes are part mental, part physical.

To be fair, I have trouble doing that in the bloody sim, let alone real life!

I'd love to have a crack in a proper simulator though. I bet I'd get it off the ground!

I did some time in a RNLAF Unit Level Simulator some years ago and that didn't really pose a problem, don't pull to much G and make sure the HUD doesn't fail otherwise it suddenly becomes a whole lot trickier

I dont know about flying a F16, but a couple of years ago I did take my flightsimming skill set and put it to RL practice in a Marchetti 260 in 1v1 air combat.
Air Combat USA

Our skills we learn translate well in RL, except for as Blastman states. I did well until I pushed negative-Gs, (Im no kid anymore). Then I got tumbleweed for a while.
I now do not push the stick forward in virtual combat anymore.

Based on my experience, absolutely not.

Being able to take off, fly, land, and fight for years in P-51's, F-16's, A-10's, F-18's, and a C-172SP on a computer got me < 5% of where I needed to be to take off, fly, and land a real C-172SP.

Take off and flying are probably the easiest and the most likely candidates for having Flight Sim skills transfer over. Landing is a whole different story. I find landing a C-172SP in FSX really sterile, bland, and boring becuase it is so much NOT like the real thing. Landing in real life if hard. I could have greased 300 landings in a row in FSX and still would have killed myself on the first real life C-172SP landing.

Of course, my experience is based on a C-172. It's possible that flight sim skills transfer over more in something like an F-16, where a computer is more involved in the actual flying anway. Or maybe they transfer over less. I don't know.