Imagine this bizarre scene from a few years ago: Me with no pilots licence, yet I'm sitting next to a highly experienced professional helicopter pilot and giving him instructions on how to fly a heli.  So he takes off OK but pulls too far back on the stick, his tail dips low and he starts moving backwards. So he puts the heli down and I take control and show him how to hover, climb then move forward. All in a days work guys!  So what happened?  You may have guessed it by now. I'd just installed fsx for him, as he was interested in virtual flying. We got a flight scenario going with the Bell heli at meigs, and using my saitek flight stick that I'd just sold to him, he attempted his first virtual flight with shaky results. I think we were both slightly bemused at the surreal situation -with me hollering 'stick forward', more throttle, etc.
In the end he did go on to master the rather clunky Saitek stick and fsx. I should have said to him at the time: "Not bad but dont give up your day job'. ;--)   

Just for the sake of experimentation, I once used duct tape to fasten a yard stick to my joystick to see how it affected my control of a helicopter...

Much to my surprise, it worked wonderfully! Having that three feet of lever allowed for much finer control! 😎

12 hours ago, n4gix said:

I once used duct tape to fasten a yard stick to my joystick .....

After reading your story, and after watching events depicted in the '5700' movie, I've come to the conclusion that rolls of duct tape should be mandatory on all aircraft.