Perhaps this comment from a friend who was one of the "Bomber boys" in that he was a Bomb Aimer on Wellingtons then Lancs, will help:
"Yes. At OTU I had 14 hours on the Link trainer (recorded in my log book). Also several periods of up to half an hour at the controls of the Wellington . That continued whenever possible on the Lancaster. Fortunately, I never had an emergency to deal with. I often wondered how I would manage to bring the Lanc back – jump out over the base or attempt to land it !"
I had personal experience with a Flight Engineer who had been on Lancasters. We flew a Hastings back from Germany in the 60's and he was delighted to take the co-pilot's seat from the top of climb (8,000ft) to the top of descent and hand flew it the whole time...as he used to do on ops!