You could actually PRACTICE part of a maiden flight with a plane you ARE familiar with. Take a plane you are familiar with and put it on a buddy box with YOU on the trainer system. Have the instructor get the plane to a safe altitude and turn the plane over to you but have ALL of your trims WAY-WAY off to the ends of travel(don't look at the trims before taking control - let it be a surprise which way it goes, just like real life). This will give you an idea of just how bad an airplane can be to handle and see if you can fight it and trim it at the same time. It won't be as severe as taking off an out of trim plane but it will give you an idea and you will have the instructor to save you if worse comes to worse.

Just a thought.