The best experience you can get out of the new NIFS is to get a real good case of vertigo. If you get it good, and your instructor lets you stay on the controls for a demo, you will never forget it. Then the first time your pilot confesses to you (and he better!!) that he has vertigo just as you push for that black ass night approach to the boat, you will hawk the instruments like you never have before. I was a 200+ hour pilot before I became an NFO and it really helped. More than one pilot I flew with thought my piloting experience helped me help them.