I think you already have this figured out, but...
When I went to the Pike Steam Show last year I was hoping to get on the controls of Steve's big dragline and I indeed did get to run it a lot! But, I had my own dragline setup differently and it took me a while to adjust and the learning period makes you look a bit like a newbie.
If you can predict running anyone else's machine in the future try and figure out who, where and setup yours the same way.
Jim