We too tried, as did Hetfield, the Baghdad scenario. We initially got control of the basic aircraft parameters, but very soon lost them; a shallow dive, speed building, and the need to apply power to raise the nose, no way possible in the sim, and three of us had a go that day and failed, as the terrifying fugoids developed.
Our sim was one of the better ones regarding similarity to real-time handling, and I guess we will never know whether it was down to us or the sim on the day.
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Major respect to that Baghdad crew for achieving the theoretically impossible.