Posted on 12/07/2023 3:57:00 PM PST by algore
Picture this: you’re nestled comfortably in your seat cruising towards your travel destination when a flight attendant’s voice breaks through the silence:
“Ladies and gentlemen, both pilots are incapacitated. Are there any passengers who could land this plane with assistance from air traffic control?”
If you think you could manage it, you’re not alone. Survey results published in January indicate about one-third of adult Americans think they could safely land a passenger aircraft with air traffic control’s guidance. Among male respondents, the confidence level rose to nearly 50%.
Can a person with no prior training simply guide everyone to a smooth touchdown?
We’ve all heard stories of passengers who saved the day when the pilot became unresponsive.
For instance, last year Darren Harrison managed to land a twin-engine aircraft in Florida – after the pilot passed out – with the guidance of an air traffic controller who also happened to be a flight instructor.
However, such incidents tend to take place in small, simple aircraft. Flying a much bigger and heavier commercial jet is a completely different game.
Once the aircraft comes close to the runway, they must accurately judge its height, reduce power and adjust the rate of descent – ensuring they land on the correct area of the runway.
On the ground, they will use the brakes and reverse thrust to bring the aircraft to a complete stop before the runway ends. This all happens within just a few minutes.
Both takeoff and landing are far too quick, technical and concentration-intensive for an untrained person to pull off. They also require a range of skills that are only gained through extensive training, such as understanding the information presented on different gauges, and being able to coordinate one’s hands and feet in a certain way.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
If you pull the throttle at an airport at a high elevation, you're coming in hard.
If I got into the cockpit of a heavy (commercial airliner) at request of the crew, first thing I would do is get on the intercom and ask, “Any military aviators on this plane?” And then immediately turn over controls in the cockpit to whomever said yes and could answer a few basic questions so I knew they were not faking it.
BTW flight sims are mosty very simplified to make game play fun. Little relation to actual flight let alone landing. But Freepers know that. (There are a few exceptions re simulators but they are very expensive - used for actual training and recreation for much wealthier people than me.)
Half the guys (non-pilot candidates) who went into the simulator for the first time ever could follow instructions from "air traffic control" to adjust the throttle, maintain a heading, trim the nose, lower flaps, and follow an instrument glide slope. Their flair wasn't pretty but they would have survived.
Cars have technology to ‘practically’ drive themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if modern passenger planes have technology that allows a plane to fly & land without a pilot.
Even if you have a seasoned pilot talking you through it on the radio, there still are two YUGE problems.
First, as you slow to landing speed, the flight controls become much less responsive because there’s less energy in the air flowing over the control surfaces. You start fighting the yoke, looking for the sweet spot between undercontrolling and overcontrolling. Which is next to impossible for anyone who’s never landed an airplane, particularly a large one because when you’re so close to the ground there’s little room for error.
And when you land, the fun is just beginning, because now you’re driving a car that’s going 150 MPH and you have to steer it WITH YOUR FEET.
Magic 8-Ball says: Outlook not so good
I remember playing that! I had Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific, Aces over Europe, and the video-gamish Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. Also had F-15 Strike Eagle III and Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat. I don’t know how many hours I wasted after school playing those games...
I would hope you were non-rev on the flight I was on if this happened. Somehow me bouncing a Cherokee warrior on an 8000 foot runway I don’t think qualifies me to land a heavy.
That’s a good idea.
I saw a show ....hardest jobs interviews ever... something like that, for Bush pilots in Africa..... A bunch of trainee pilots from America, go try to fly in this very tight valley, in a cesna, and try to make a run between literally dirt landing strips in the bush. A lot of them quit flying after that experience.
I also noticed an early form of wokeness (or political correctness, as it was then called). Although these games prided themselves on accuracy, the German WW II planes in Aces Over Europe didn't have swastikas.
I also had the Warthog helicopter video game, and (I think it was called Aces of the Deep) a submarine war game.
I’m an instrument rated pilot. I am sure I could. Just need the numbers for the aircraft since there is no time to study the flight manual.
I read someplace that the lack of swastikas on the planes was due to German law— they wouldn’t be able to sell the games legally in Germany if the swastika was depicted.
I also had Aces of the Deep but never got into it. I preferred playing for the British or Americans (and if I remember right, Aces of the Deep you only got to play for the Germans). So, for sub warfare I’d play Silent Service II and for surface warfare the Great Naval Battles series from SSI.
In Red Baron, I played for both sides about equally. I was mostly into Red Baron and Aces of the Pacific. By the time the later games came out, I was shifting from DOS to Windows 95, and these games didn’t play so well on the newer system.
More likely to be successful with a modern jetliner than a private plane. Get instructions on how to program the flight computer, and if it’s a major airport, the computers should do the hard work.
Except maybe San Francisco, where there appears to be an issue with some of the air traffic controllers.
Oh, I don’t know. When I worked as an engineer at Boeing, they let us into the simulators to try to land the plane. I was the only one in my group who managed it, although it did skid sideways on the runway a bit. I am female BTW.
Well if it was my flight Mr. GG2 would raise his hand and I’m not sayin he’d stick a 10 because its been a few decades but he’s rated on a 737 so with the controller in his ear we’d land. Somewhere. 😆
I dont think I’ll ever get over Macho Grande. Those wounds run..........pretty deep.
A military aviator could probably be talked through configuring the airplane with a type rated pilot on the radio and land it manually, although it wouldn't be pretty. A guy with 1000 hrs in a Cessna 172 landing it manually? You're probably gonna die. Somebody with no flight experience? Yeah right.
It's not that hard but it does take repetition and muscle memory. Water skiing isn't that hard but how many people stay up for a mile the first time they try it?
Since you are a commercial pilot (or were) I would certainly hope so. ;-)
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