[unsignedint]

We do come across the news some passengers landing the plane with guidance from ATC time to time, and maybe ones with prior "training" with flight simulators may know at least how planes operate in certain extent, perhaps even where right switches are located. This alone may reduce a lot of back and forth with ATC, as they could say "turn the heading knob to 010 within autopilot cluster" as opposed to "you see there's a section of instrument called autopilot on the top center of the console -- you should see the knob that says heading, turn it so it says 010." At least it would be less intimidating to ones that has seen them in simulations. (after all, that's what simulations are all about...)

It's probably safe to say you'd get 50% edge just by knowing how plane controls works (roll, pitch, yaw) -- I don't think a lot of "general public" would have idea what they are, let alone how they are mapped to things in a cockpit.