Ha, cool, I used to work at Rediffusion and I heard a similar story about when a UPS pilot got the SC to do the phugoid behaviour 'properly' by taking him up in a plane to experience it.
When they tried it in the sim, both of them were similarly thrown around and a terrified few seconds as neither were able to reach the panic button :-)
Any chance you worked on an MD-82 for Alitalia a long time ago? I think they have two over there, and I worked on relocating one of them to CAE Madrid. My first taste of a Rediffusion machine - similar architecture, nicer code.
No, think there was an Alitalia on the factory floor when I worked there, but I can't remember.
Most memorable event on the factory floor was when a hydraulic jack failed on a sim, and the resulting jet of fluid punched a hole through six layers of hand wire-wrapped PCBs on the sim next door.
I think it put them back six weeks. Luckily the penalty clause for lateness was only $50,000 per day. Gulp.
When they tried it in the sim, both of them were similarly thrown around and a terrified few seconds as neither were able to reach the panic button :-)