I have several friends who are airline pilots. They have all told me that flying an airliner is easy.
One of them called me to ask how long my laptop battery lasted. I told him I plugged it into the cigarette lighter. He said, "There is no cigarette lighter in the cockpit of a 757." I asked,"You play with your computer while flying an airliner?" He said, "There isn't any thing else to do."
I have been told several times the only hard part of flying an airliner is landing it. On a small prop plane your rear end is at most 6 to 10 feet above the ground when the wheels touch down. In an airliner the pilots bottom is 60 to 90 feet in the air, depending on the airliner. I have been told that once you master the sight picture of the high landing height, flying an airliner is a piece of cake.
Another airliner pilot told me it was harder to fly a Piper Cub than it was a 737. The 737 has a slight delay in control response, but that is quickly mastered in minutes. He said a 737 is very stable. A Piper Cub bounces all over the sky. He said flying Cub is like trying to guide a cork on rough seas. The wind has far less effect on a heavy airliner.
I used to let my daugher fly my plane when she was 10 years old. I would be PIC in the right seat so it was legal. She had zero problems. My son soloed at 16. He could fly a plane solo before he could drive a car by himself. He wrecked my cars... He never wrecked my planes. Come to think of it, my Daughter wrecked several cars and never put a dent on the plane either.
Flying a plane is not all that hard.
However, you can learn to fly and become capable enough to take over the control - enough to fly it into a building - by using a desktop sim alone, such as FS2000. A 5 year old can fly a 757.