I had a go at it in a 737-700 simulator with my only previous flight experience being 20 minutes in a glider and PC flight sims (well, and most of an AE education
). Not exactly CAVOK but high cloudbase, I did not see the RWY at first when established on the ILS. I'm fairly sure there was a sidewind component as well.
I had the controls thrown at me from the right seat while expecting to be a passenger about when we retracted gear on the take-off. The help I had was a route to the RWY on the ND that I did not follow but which helped me get on the ILS, help with advice on what a good approx speed to aim for would be on the approach, flap setting and gear lowered when I asked for it. I wasn't familiar with EFIS systems then and hadn't managed to get it into the right mode so I flew it on compass, loc and GS indication once I realized that I had no hope at all getting the CAT III HUD to make sense in time.
I manhandled the jet around a pattern of sorts, getting the feel of the controls after overcorrecting wildly at first creating massive PIOs. My altitude control wouldn't have gotten me by even the most tolerant checkride in the world even after that but I remained airborne and got the plane to where I wanted it.
The outcome? I came in hot & high but had plenty of runway in excess of what I needed so I could probably have made it down. However, the fella in the RH seat (who was a trained pilot although not on 737) decided to go for an uncommanded missed approach and slammed the throttles forward and retracted the gear, much to my surprise.
At the same time, the "friendly" instructor thought an irrecoverable flameout on #1 would make it more interesting. As I'd taken my feet off the pedals since I did more harm than good trying to use them this caught me somewhat off guard. By the time I realized what was happening and had my feet back where they should be we were at 200', gear up off to the left of the RWY in a 90 degree bank getting steeper and with the nose low. You do forget that it is a simulator and it was very uncomfortable indeed to see the world go black.
My conclusion? Yes, a PPL COULD land an airliner. With a bit of luck. And you better hope that nothing else goes wrong. I just hope that I'm not on the airliner when it is tested as I think the odds are kinda bad.
Cheers,
/ft