I have to wrangle some time in one of those things! I wonder how much they cost per hour? At a stab in the dark I'd say "lots" ... Googlegooglegoogle ... US$1500 / hour! Jesus on a pogo stick, you can hire an L-29 for less than that (from Jet Warbirds).

Mind you, you need 1000 hours with 500 as PIC before they'll let you fly one.  Time to start saving for some serious cross-country flying

---
Buy and wear InfidelGear - 100% of all InfidelGear profit goes to SOLO!

You heard right. The realism is such that you really sweat it out when the alarms go off and everything turns to shit. They tend to freeze the sim just before you hit the ground  but it makes you feel as if you are going to fly through the windshield. It takes a minute or so to recompose yourself after one of those sim freezes.

If you ever get a chance to ride in a decent commercial simulator, grab it.

I know of a story that goes as follows:

737 Captain and F/O  are in a sim and they have a fire after landing on the right hand side of the aircraft. The procedure is for the F/O to get the fire extinguisher, leave the cockpit and open the right hand service door using the slide to get down and to the fire.

The F/O was so much into the exercise that he grabbed the fire extinguisher and mistook the simulator door for the cockpit door, due to his speed he fell over the safety chain and 4 meters down on the concrete floor of the simulator hall. Ouch.

Carbon Tax is a hoax. Read more at carbonhoax.org.nz and spread the word.

Yikes! Still, that's what simulators are for I've heard from people who have flown in simulators that the experience of crashing the things is actually terrifying - even though you're well aware it's not a real aircraft.

---
Buy and wear InfidelGear - 100% of all InfidelGear profit goes to SOLO!

I was in the B737 simulator for my 6 monthly check ride. I was pilot flying and the instructor threw a "runaway stabilizer" error at me while I was hand flying.

That is similar Duncan to the trim issue you experienced be it that the trim moved by itself. In my case the aircraft wanted to dive down. The proper response to a "Runaway Stabiliser" problem is to hit the cutout switch which is right underneath the trim wheel.

I did not recognize the symptoms quick enough and proceeded to pull up and the aircraft wanted to nose dive with ever increasing force. Not before long I had to use two hands to keep the nose of the aircraft up. The penny still didn't drop. The captain offered help and soon we were both holding on to the controls for dear life with our arms wrapped around the yoke and our feet firmly planted on the instrument panel.

Neither one of us could let go as we realised the problem we both looked at the now out of reach cutout switch. We managed to nudge the nose up just a little and that was enough to let go of the controls for a brief moment to hit the cutout switch and manually start winding the trim back into place.

The instructor was not impressed. It was quite a comical situation, were it not for the seriousness of our failure to do the right thing. Glad it was a simulator.

Carbon Tax is a hoax. Read more at carbonhoax.org.nz and spread the word.

You should get out there and have a go - here in Australia a trial flight (complete with pre-flight briefing & a decont go at the controls) costs between $88 and $170, depending upon club and which type of aircraft you take up.

---
Buy and wear InfidelGear - 100% of all InfidelGear profit goes to SOLO!

There's something really romantic about having the ability to fly a plane an aircraft (a crop duster pilot admonished me for that once and insisted I never refer to aircraft as "planes" again).

It is on my "to do" list.