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That's funny. A while back I was conversing with a former -16 pilot in a previous life who after two some odd decades in the cockpit, cashed out and became a MD-11 jockey for FedEx. I'd previously shared with him documentation concerning a dynamic campaign engine -16 flight simulation that I had on my PC. After perusing the hundred+ page PDF concerning just modifications to the stock simulation (concerning the FM, avionics and instrumentation), he said he'd have to check it out.

Later he relayed an anecdote to me.

On one of his check out flights as a new right seater, they spent 45 minutes on the tarmac trying to program a balky NAV computer for their flight. Everytime they got it programmed, they had to redo it based on changing weather conditions and other issues, e.g., ATC and traffic. Finally in frustration my friend exclaimed, "Why don't we just kick the tires, light the fire, and fly this bird to where we're going?". The left seater just looked at him like he had three heads. What?!?!? Fly, what is that?

He told me that he had no doubt that I - merely a virtual pilot - could probably fly one of the big liners as well as any of the crew with several thousand hours under their belts (and probably IFR too). But in commericial aviation nobody just flys anywhere anymore.

I took a friend from work flying with me a few years back. He had never been in a small plane previously. He said that he had the profile of our plane on MS Flight Simulator and had been flying with it. He had all of the critical air-speeds for our plane memorized for takeoff, climb out, approach, and landing. Before the flight I gave him a little instruction on my philosophy of how to use trim and the flaps to make the landing easier. He took off, flew the plane and landed the plane multiple times without any hints from me at all. We visited multiple airports; the one we started out at was no challenge for him at all. Flying the real thing at least in our plane is easier than flying the simulator. So I think your friend could be right.

My brother says that he is just a flying bus driver. But commercial pilots are under a lot of pressure; they are constantly having to learn new equipment and they have to keep track of a lot while they are flying around. The constant communication required at a busy hub can be a real challenge. At this point, I prefer to just fly to small uncontrolled airports if possible. The communication can get very confusing when you are going into a big place for the first time. It takes all of the fun out of it. For pure fun you really can't beat an ultralight or a hang glider.