When they get up in the air, they're not wasting their time circling checkpoints, wasting fuel or the considerable amount of maintenance hours that go into each hour in the air. It's a real time-saver if you can get pilots somewhat proficient before they even get up in the air. Being able to stop and re-orient myself was a key thing. I was able to check my surroundings and make corrections. Pilots are given a laminated map and a grease pencil and must trace the route they believe the aircraft is flying.
Field of view is critical.
The single, flat screen may be nice for fast, fixed-wing approach where you're high and fast and everything looks as it does on a map. But that's not how helicopters fly. At 50 feet, what you see out the cockpit does not look like what you see on a map. Pilots were given about 45 minutes to fly through the virtual program. I was able to connect with the map.