Nearly 50% of men who have never flown or landed an airplane think they could safely land a passenger airplane
- Thread starter wwillson
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Nope. Absolutely not possible. ATC doesn’t know how to fly the plane, either.
Tell me how your hypothetical zero experience, which is what the article was about, person is going to find the correct frequency, operate the radios, and get an experienced pilot on the line.
Sheer fantasy on their part and yours.
I’ve had lots of zero time pilots in the simulator. I can’t talk them into a landing even when I can see everything they’re doing. I have to put my hands on the controls and help them.
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I am not a licensed pilot but hope to be someday. With that said, I have some time in the left seat of small single engine aircraft(mostly Piper Archers or similar) and I'm confident I could land one of those if I had to. Possibly with some damage to the airframe of course but I think I could get it on the ground and walk away. No idea on a passenger jet but I'd definitely give it my best shot and I feel like I understand the theory well enough, it would be more a concern of finding appropriate controls and setting the aircraft up for landing with something I've probably never even sat in before.
OK. You turn on autopilot. How? Which button is it?
Where is it going to take the airplane? What’s programmed? What mode is engaged? Are the autothrottles even on?
How would you program the autopilot for a landing?
How would you configure the airplane? What flap setting? When? What speed would you fly?
In all fairness, size of the plane and engine type (jet) wasn't mentioned in your OP.
I think I read it like some others in here.
Thinking a small prop plane which also could carry passengers. My mind automatically went to the prop plane that landed in Florida by a "passenger" in May of 2022
Untrained passenger lands Florida plane after pilot falls ill
The passenger can be heard in recordings saying he had "no idea how to stop the airplane".
www.bbc.com
Talk-down aircraft landing - Wikipedia
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They want to live or maybe if they are a member of this Forum so they want to get home and read the posts on here. Realize some people can handle pressure situations.
Then I will make you an offer. Put you in the cockpit of a 767 and without my help, and without a bunch of studying, see how you do.
I’ve got folding money that says you crash.
I'd bet you're correct. Might stand a slightly better chance that Joe Blow that's never been in a cockpit before but the odds definitely favor crashing.
If I gave you a scalpel, could you do brain surgery? Wanting to live, and being able to handle pressure will not impart the knowledge required to make that, or flying an airliner, work.
I‘m stunned by the breathtaking presumption in this thread. I’m here to tell you that I have seen this attempted and every single time, they fall hopelessly short.
Even experienced single engine private pilots need coaching, guidance, and hands on the controls to learn it.
When Wayne flew the 767 - he did great. Honestly. But I took care of a myriad of details. Things that most people wouldn’t even know needed to be considered - what speed to fly at each flap setting. How to program and tune the ILS. So many details that are required, yes, required, for a safe outcome. To take an experienced commercial pilot and get them ready to fly a new airplane takes hundreds of hours of classroom, simulator, and supervised flying.
No pilot in the world can impart enough of that over a radio, without seeing what you’re doing, to make this fantasy come true.
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I'm done with this thread and I refuse to tolerate two staff members speaking to me with that tone.
I've had enough arguments with *****ead pilots who think their jobs are the hardest in the world. Since I can't put either of you on ignore or put a stop to the notifications - leave me out of it moving forward.
It did say "passenger plane", which to me means a transport category airplane. I should have been more clear, sorry about that.
Just making an observation here.....if this thread wasn't started by a staff member it would be locked by now.
Interesting question, one I have literally never considered. Seems like such an unlikely scenario it's just never occurred to me. Off the cuff, my response would be very low to zero with help of traffic control, assuming I could summon them. On my own, definitely zero. In any event, it's such an unlikely scenario that I'd accept the stress, pressure, confusion, presumably dead people all around, making the odds effectively zero. But it's difficult to even fabricate such a worst case situation that's less common that being hit by lighting.
Out of curiosity I looked it up. A handful of passengers have managed to land small private planes with traffic control help. As of 2020, it appears only once has a commercial airline needed a passenger at the yoke and that crashed killing all 120+ aboard.
Out of curiosity I looked it up. A handful of passengers have managed to land small private planes with traffic control help. As of 2020, it appears only once has a commercial airline needed a passenger at the yoke and that crashed killing all 120+ aboard.
It's all good, as soon as you said "jet" it hit me that was what you were talking about. My mind kept remembering all the coverage of that Florida plane last year and the media reporting "passenger" so I wasn't thinking of a jet type plane.
I also listed off wikipedia of recent instances but I can't disagree with you about a commercial jet aircraft.
I know nothing about flying but love the subject because its one of a few unrealized passions of mine to fly a small plane b ut more of a dream at this point now.
People might easily be confused by the "passenger plane" because frankly, I would not be able to give a definition of that obscure term.
The question is flawed. Bad data in, bad data out.
Rephrase the question with a more specific plane (a large commercial jetliner holding 200+ passengers) and a second question changing it to a small 6 seat private plane, and we'd get far better or at least more accurate survey of replies.
I'm not a pilot but I have degrees in the social sciences, which includes survey writing, logic, language, etc. Most surveys are garbage and I pay no mind to probably 99% of surveys. They're almost always poorly written, unintelligible, bias, poor sampling size or type, multi-part questions, make invalid assumptions, and so forth.
I'd bet with a more clear question, a realistic scenario (with a picture of the cockpit, time constraints, etc.) the answer would be nearly zero.
Yeah, it would be a thrilling hobby. I've considered using the rest of my GI Bill to get a pilots license. But then the real world interferes and I have too much else going on.
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No I don’t think I could. One thing I’d be too nervous to even think about controlling it. Two I’ve seen cockpit pictures and no way in heck could I handle doing that especially being under that much pressure if something happened to the crew.
I mean there are articles and videos of passengers doing it but who knows how true they are.
I mean there are articles and videos of passengers doing it but who knows how true they are.
Never said my job is the hardest. You’re the one, who hasn’t flown an airliner, who is getting bent out of shape, here.
But to think you can do my job without any training is the height of arrogance.
A breathtaking insult to those in the profession.
I’ve given simulator tours many, many times in 26 years. Most of them to zero time, non pilots.
I’ve got data, experience, on this exact scenario.
You don’t.
Try being a lawyer sometime!
Everyone - and I mean everyone - thinks they know the law, are excellent at "arguing," (arguing, and argument are two distinct animals), and can win jury trials. Then I ask them how they would conduct voir dire and they say they'd file a brief.
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