Posted on 03/20/2021 7:33:12 PM PDT by SamAdams76
A cockpit of a modern airliner, with all of its switches, dials, and knobs, can be a scary and intimidating place for one who is unfamiliar with them and has no experience whatsoever in the piloting of an aircraft.
Particularly if you found yourself in one while the plane was already in the air, flying on auto-pilot at 35,000 feet. Would you be able to land the plane on your own or would you essentially be doomed to a crash landing?
I sometimes wonder about this scenario. Let's say you are a passenger in a 737 jetliner headed from say New York to Las Vegas. You are in the window seat peering out, looking over what looks like Kansas, with a patchwork of farmlands sliding underneath you. You are relaxed, having just drained the last of your $6 bottle of Heineken. You turn your head to beckon the stewardess for another one. Then you suddenly realize that not only is there no stewardess about, but no fellow passengers either. The entire cabin of the plane is EMPTY!
"Well that's sort of strange" you mutter to yourself. You remember getting on the plane with a bunch of folks and definitely got served a Heinekens and a bag of peanuts from that pretty brunette stewardess who promised to come back a little later with another round of drinks and snacks.
Nervously, you get up from your seat to have a look around. You had to hit the lavatory anyhow, being that beer is only rented and never owned. So you head down the aisle and confirm that there is absolutely nobody in the other seats. The lavatory is unoccupied and you don't bother sliding the lock behind you. Pretty bizarre. You relieve yourself and step back into the cabin hoping that everything would be back to normal. Maybe you were hallucinating?
But no. The cabin is totally devoid of people. Now you are nervous. You slowly make your way up the cabin, past your seat and towards the cockpit. Maybe the pilot can make sense of things. You politely knock on the door of the cockpit and after getting no response, you knock harder. Then ever harder. You are really nervous now.
You pull the handle, half-expecting it to be locked, but it swings right open and you step up into a totally EMPTY cockpit! You are totally freaked out now. Either you are in a very bad dream or the Rapture just happened and left you behind.
Either way, you now have some decisions to make. You are all alone in a passenger jet some 35,000 feet over Kansas or whatever that state is down there.
The plane seems to be flying level and on a westerly course to the planned destination. Obviously it is in "auto-pilot" mode but that is only for cruising altitude. In order to land the plane, the auto-pilot will need to be disengaged and some real piloting stuff must be done to get the plane safely on the ground.
So this leads me to the purpose of this post. Is it possible for a regular passenger, having just drained a Heinken, to land a modern jet aircraft with zero pilot training?
I would think probably not. If I was in that situation, I might just drink the rest of the Heinekens on board with a few mini-bottles of scotch and calmly accept my fate. Randomly pushing buttons and switches to see what they do does not seem like an optimum way to learn how to fly na airplane.
Even supposing you could figure out the radio and get an experienced pilot on the ground to walk you through the controls, it would seem like an exercise in futility. This isn't like the movies after all. Just one wrong twist of the dial or the wrong switch pulled could send the aircraft into a fatal tailspin or whatnot.
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it is possible for a person with no piloting experience to take over the controls of a Boeing 737 jetliner at 35,000 feet and get it down to a safe landing.
Meh, what else you gonna do? you got to look around and take a shot at it.
“the purpose of this post. Is it possible for a regular passenger, having just drained a Heinken, to land a modern jet aircraft with zero pilot training?”
Yes.
I would read the manual , then make sure that I have a qualified pilot on the radio to talk me through it. These things can just about land themselves.
I would just do the same thing you would do if trying to land on the moon or maybe catch a tail hook on a carrier.
Yer a funny bastid Sam
You could possibly be talked down by an experienced pilot. Heck, modern airplanes are almost fully automated. Course and altitude changes can be done without touching the yoke or rudder just by twisting a few knobs.
1. Secure communications with the ground.
2. Get a pilot or instructor on the other end of the line.
3. Switch off autopilot when they tell me to.
4. Answer questions and follow directions.
Some of the newer jets have the ability to land themselves. Under certain conditions and jets, have autoland capability. Cirrus business jets have an autoland feature.
There are restrictions on how this is used, ie not every airport you may be able to use autoland. But this feature does exist.
I recall reading that safely landing a jet aircraft with no experience is virtually impossible.
What ever you had for dinner before going to sleep DO NOT DO IT AGAIN.
wow
I would jump in the air right before the plane hit the ground.
You are in the window seat peering out, looking over what looks like Kansas, with a patchwork of farmlands sliding underneath you. You are relaxed, having just drained the last of your $6 bottle of Heineken.
You turn your head to beckon the stewardess for another one. Then you suddenly realize that not only is there no stewardess about, but no fellow passengers either.
The entire cabin of the plane is EMPTY!
I think you've been watching too much late night TV.....
“What if you were placed in the cockpit
of a jetliner by yourself at 35,000 feet?”
-
I’d say something like: “Damn! how many beers did I have?”.
Wow! I missedthe topless girl the first time I saw the movie!
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