Pffft..I have 1,000 hours on Janes F/A-18 Flight Sim. I could land on a carrier at night in bad weather!!! hahaha.
We all know that an airliner is nothing but a larger Cessna.
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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Pffft..I have 1,000 hours on Janes F/A-18 Flight Sim. I could land on a carrier at night in bad weather!!! hahaha.
We all know that an airliner is nothing but a larger Cessna.
If there was no alternative I'd rather give it a 50% shot than just set back and die in plane crash. But to just grab the controls nope.
I thought modern planes are so computerized, that the only reason you need a pilot is if something goes wrong with the computer. A monkey could land one.
I'm sure to do a safe proper landing at an airport, in a modern airliner with no training, it would be impossible.
How about on a perfect sunny day, happening to be flying over bonneville salt flats? With some fuel so you can go around again and again? There's no flying these just using basic controls anymore? Throttle flaps stick? I guess even finding the landing gear is near impossible...
How about on a perfect sunny day, happening to be flying over bonneville salt flats? With some fuel so you can go around again and again? There's no flying these just using basic controls anymore? Throttle flaps stick? I guess even finding the landing gear is near impossible...
You have defined one of the aspects of a non-pilot trying to land any airplane.
When I was a full-time instructor, 30 years ago, I had a senior 747 captain come into the FBO where I instructed, wanting to get checked out in an Arrow so he could take his family for a ride. I was fairly new at instructing and thought if this guy can fly 747s, then he surly can fly an Arrow. We did the ground work and went up for a flight. All was well until we were on short final. We were getting slow and just as I pointed to the airspeed and said, "we're slow" he started his flare, about 100 feet too high, and at the same time pulled the power to idle. In a piston engine, when you pull the power to idle, it goes to zero thrust immediately. The airspeed got way slow and the stall horn started chirping at us. I went to full power and pushed the nose down, this to save us from stalling and nose diving into the ground. I had to literally jerk the yoke back to try to arrest the fast descent rate. We hit the ground on the rear wheels, nose high, with a pretty high descent rate and slow. Of course we bounced. To make it worse, he never let go of the controls, so I was working against him. This all happened in about 5 seconds. It scared both of us. All because he wasn't familiar with a Piper Arrow. If I hadn't been sitting beside him, I am 100% certain he would have crashed.
We taxied to the hanger in silence. We got out and he walked to the office, paid, and I never saw him again. He didn't log the time or get my signature in his log book. He knew he had no business in small airplanes, unless he was going to get some serious instruction time and he wasn't interested.
The hard landing sheared a bolt in the landing gear. Which wasn't found until the 100 hour inspection about a week later.
I never again assumed anything about any pilot I flew with.
They can autoland, if they have it, but you still have to be able to set it up, and thats beyond the pay grade of 99.9% of people who think they would be able to do it without having ever done it before. Its not just a one step process. There isnt a magical button on the dash that says "In case of emergency, push here" and its going to fly into LAX and land itself. I know Garmin was working on a one-button system close to that, where they are with that I dont know.
Even with autoland, properly set up, in ideal weather getting the plane on the ground and stopped on the runway in one piece still puts the chances close to zero for most people, because they simply dont know what they are looking at or what they are doing. The instrument panel of an airliner is an extremely intimidating bunch of confusion, if you arent used to what you are looking at.
Some dolt driving around his pickup truck in rush hour traffic, chewing on the end of a straw and daydreaming about the day he's going to save the day landing a 737 without ever having been in a cockpit before, is living in lala land.
Even with autoland, properly set up, in ideal weather getting the plane on the ground and stopped on the runway in one piece still puts the chances close to zero for most people, because they simply dont know what they are looking at or what they are doing. The instrument panel of an airliner is an extremely intimidating bunch of confusion, if you arent used to what you are looking at.
Some dolt driving around his pickup truck in rush hour traffic, chewing on the end of a straw and daydreaming about the day he's going to save the day landing a 737 without ever having been in a cockpit before, is living in lala land.
FIFY
The realism is 99.999%. The only thing that's different, is you don't smell burning jet fuel. I was completely blow away by how completely convinced I was flying the real airplane.
Relatively calm day....stable altitude...OMG, the pilot succumbed to his spoiled fish lunch! (see, I saw 'Airplane' too).
What do I do? CUT POWER.
Let the air cool and the balloon lands itself.
OMG! we're over water! You can't win sometimes.
What do I do? CUT POWER.
Let the air cool and the balloon lands itself.
OMG! we're over water! You can't win sometimes.
I fly almost every week. This thread makes me laugh, the only action I'd be taking is firing up my cell phone hoping I could talk or text my wife and kids one last time. I'm not sure I could get a jetway to move in the right direction.
Still, most of us like to think we are good at our jobs, and no one else can do it. I'm a salesman and have negotiated multi-million dollar deals with Oshkosh, GM, Toyota, etc. Could anyone else do it, sure, but not many of you here. However, not doing my deal wouldn't result in the death of anyone. And neither will this discussion. It's just a random internet discussion, lighten up everyone, it's a cool discussion but not worth anyone getting mad about.
Still, most of us like to think we are good at our jobs, and no one else can do it. I'm a salesman and have negotiated multi-million dollar deals with Oshkosh, GM, Toyota, etc. Could anyone else do it, sure, but not many of you here. However, not doing my deal wouldn't result in the death of anyone. And neither will this discussion. It's just a random internet discussion, lighten up everyone, it's a cool discussion but not worth anyone getting mad about.
Well it was only $1-million at the time! Or not, I dont know. This was right before 9/11, things were cheaper then in the good old days.FIFY
The realism is 99.999%. The only thing that's different, is you don't smell burning jet fuel. I was completely blow away by how completely convinced I was flying the real airplane.
It certainly looked real, every bit as much as the real 767 flightdeck we were just tinkering in out on the tarmac.
In 1998, we bought two new 747-400 simulators. Because we bought two at the same time, we got a deal on them.
It was only $50 million for the pair.
Which doesn’t include things like the 4’ (yes, foot) thick concrete pad, 440v power, and building to house it.
The building in which they were installed could fit 10 full motion simulators. It cost $75 million.
Aaaaactually… you’re kinda off there. I review surveys at work all the time. And we typically toss out the glowing five stars - you’re perfect - and the one star - you’re the worst. Then we focus on the middle because that is where you’re going to get actual usable feedback. Because people are too emotional and cannot accurately tact how they feel versus what the reality of the situation is. Say-Do correspondence in the average person is horrible to say the least. People do not have to know and understand the operational contingencies controlling their behavior for those contingencies to still work. I could get into other things as well on the topic but it is irrelevant.
Also, I did not act as though my opinion was factual, so I don’t see where the Dunning- Kruger effect comes into play. It is my opinion and I was making jokes about myself while giving it. Clearly, I don’t take my self too seriously on the topic. [insert Poe’s law]
Moreover despite what pretentious people and academics [insert PWMDMD] think us regular uneducated bumpkins are allowed to actually have opinions on things. And not just blindly walk around completely oblivious to the world around them while appealing to a greater authority for how we should think. For instance, I’ve never made a car, but I can say a car design sucks if want without running anything by a designer first. Never been a chef but I can say a meal sucks if I want without discussing it with a classically chef beforehand.
I’m sorry if this is related to your profession, which is why my comments struck a nerve. But don’t blame me because you picked a pseudoscience to focus your studies on
Here is a video of someone trying to do this. He didnt make it when flying manually but did when landed with autopilot. Even with autopilot he needed alot of assistance. I do think when your life is on the line some people who think they can handle pressure probably cant.
Have you seen the trend of air traffic controllers that have pilot certificates going down over the decades?
30 years ago, the percentage of air traffic controllers having pilot certificates was much higher.
The average man with no flying experience thinks he could land a huge passenger plane because he's played a flight simulator game, watched it being done on TV or watched the "Learning to Fly" video by the Foo Fighters. I know I'm one of the 50% who knows I couldn't do it. On the same subject, my son has a room mate (early 20s) who is taking flying lessons. My son doesn't really clue me in on details except that the tuition for this pilot school cost him $95K. Yes, that's ninety-five thousand dollars. No details here, but If this kid ever becomes a pilot, I'm swearing off riding the skies ever again.
That being said, the post about some extreme arrogance on this site is absolutely correct.
And when I worked tech support in college, explaining where the close and Start buttons were makes this seem like a non-starter unless they make a large catch-all “SAVE THE PLANE” button, rainbow-colored and take any number of presses to activate.
Hey, 6% of Americans think they could beat a grizzly bear in a fight.
The survey said passenger plane. If a Cessna 208 Caravan counts as a passenger plane then the probability of a layman landing the plane is not 0% because a layman did accomplish landing it after the pilot became incapacitated. People hear about a layman landing a "plane" and people have seen Airplane and people assume there are really competent people on the ground that can walk them through exactly what to do and when to do it and that they need to do is keep calm and follow instructions. It's not a knock against pilots. No layman thinks they could land the plane on their own.
The survey said passenger plane. If a Cessna 208 Caravan counts as a passenger plane then the probability of a layman landing the plane is not 0% because a layman did accomplish landing it after the pilot became incapacitated. People hear about a layman landing a "plane" and people have seen Airplane and people assume there are really competent people on the ground that can walk them through exactly what to do and when to do it and that they need to do is keep calm and follow instructions. It's not a knock against pilots. No layman thinks they could land the plane on their own.
CAE?
In the words of Clint Eastwood "A man has to know his limitations". LOL
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