Whirlybird:
Appreciate your input, but the instructor had his hands waving out the window most of the time I was hovering to show my dad (who was watching) that it was in fact me doing it. Up until that point he had his hands up in the air, and the intercom button he was using was mounted on the door frame, so he didn't need to have his hands on the stick. My wife, who was videotaping it, asked my dad "is that Michael doing that?" and my dad said "no way, it would take several hours training to be able to do that." I took great pleasure in telling him later that yes, it was me.
Also, the instructor knew I wasn't a potential customer at that point, so there was no reason for him to try to make me feel better about it.
MOSTAFA:
I actually think if you can hover in a simulator with only the forward view, you should do better in the real thing, because of the lack of visual cues in the simulator. It's very difficult to tell if you're starting to move backwards when you've got no peripheral screens.
I'm going to have the most kickass simulator controls around pretty soon!
Michael.