Here's how one recruit described it:

The Link Trainer is basically a miniature aircraft anchored to the floor through a universal joint. The trainee sat in the cockpit, which was fitted with complete flying controls and instrumentation. With the hood closed the student had to rely totally on instrumentation as he undertook simulated "blind" flight as would be experienced under adverse weather conditions or night flying. All elements of flight could be demonstrated from the effect of variations in engine power through to stalls and spins.

The Link was powered through a series of bellows and electric motors that allowed it to move in all axis providing an amazingly realistic and effective simulation of actual flight. The instructor sat at a control desk where he communicated with the student through a telephone link while the course being flown during the exercise was followed on a map with a recording plotter referred to as a "crab".

Former Spitfire pilot Arthur Jewett recalls many hours in the Link at all levels of his training along with simulated flights over the Ontario landscape. He recalls that the Link "could very easily get you into trouble" and that it "was more difficult to control than the aircraft we were then flying". A former Link instructor was quoted as saying that "it did everything that the aircraft would do. If you made a mistake in the air, it was serious; if you made a mistake and crashed the Link, it was only on paper."