"Bob Gardner" wrote
A Flight Training Device, such as the one you had demonstrated to you, is
harder to fly than the actual airplane when it is working perfectly. The
airplane is a pretty forgiving thing, short term...you can let go of the
controls and it will maintain trimmed pitch and bank for awhile. The FTD, on
the other hand, forces you to scan properly and stay on top of the
situation. This is a good thing.

It's not a bug, it's a feature. That's what all incompetent/lazy
software developers say - and they say it because sometimes people
believe it.

The sign of a good simulation of real life is this - someone who can
do it in real life does well in the simulation almost immediately,
while someone with no experience has a learning curve. In my
experience, FAA-certified FTD's generally offer terrible simulations.
That's not to say they have no training value, but the training value
would be a lot higher if the sim behaved like the real aircraft. Yes,
if you turn up the turbulence it's harder to fly - but not in a
realistic way that prepares you to handle the actual aircraft in the
clouds.

I recommend giving the junk software written to government standards a
miss. Instead, buy any decent flight sim (even MS). No, the time
isn't loggable - but the flight model is much better, there is much
greater flexibility in panel customization, and there are a lot fewer
bugs (even in the MS product).

Having said that, I think you got a lousy demonstration...don't know whether
to blame the box or the instructor.

I'm sure both meet FAA minimum standards.

Michael