I agree with Radek. The desktop units are not close enough to the airplane to be used "in place of" - but the fact is that the airplane is a terrible classroom. We need to make sure that most of the "classroom" stuff is done before we get TO the airplane, and that is where the desktop units are very helpful. You can only go so far in the classroom per se, and being able, as Radek indicates, to "show" what things look like makes the bridge between theory (classroom) and practice (aircraft) much better.

The airlines used to kill pilots and destroy airplanes trying to simulate stuff in the airplane and when "sims" came along things got better. I'd rather show a student in the desktop unit (assuming that an actual sim is not available) what things look like so that they grasp concepts and procedures more firmly. Emergencies and the like, but even what does an ILS "look like" - so they can concentrate on that for understanding and not be worried about the aircraft. THEN to the aircraft and training will be much better.

Alan