Two decades later, I stumbled out of my first session - on the AA Boeing 707-123B sim in Dallas - also greatly chastened. My tussles with the stab trim had resulted in pitch oscillations of at least plus/minus five hundred feet! However, the kindly (and sadly long-deceased) training captain had seen it all before, and I survived to fly the real aeroplane. It proved to be much more docile, and with the 'B' series aerodynamic improvements - including most importantly the series yaw damper - it wasn't too much of a handful in a gusty crosswind.
Legend has it that the QANTAS 707 conversion course was a bit savage. I wait to see, in the next instalment, if the said Captain Hartz was the one who made candidates fly an approach with their heads out of the DV window. (The ever popular shattered windscreen scenario.)
