# Can anyone be taught to fly a plane? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682 "2019-05-08T20:14:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dunmurry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dunmurry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunmurry)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/1 "2019-05-08T20:14:25Z")
Well I was wondering if learning to fly a plane like an Airbus or Boeing type aircraft is something anyone can learn or not. For example, I have an aunt who drives a car and always gives it too much rev and had been known to drive into other cars if parking in a car park. Could she learn how to fly a plane? This is a person who can barely drive. What I would really like to know is whether anyone can be taught his to fly a plane or whether only people with a certain type of brain/mind could learn to fly a plane like this? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/2 "2019-05-08T20:22:47Z")
I’d say that if you can operate a car you can operate at least a small airplane - which is not to say you will operate it _well_. Just as there are poor drivers there are poor pilots. Admittedly, poor pilots tend to eliminate themselves from the gene pool even faster than poor drivers. I can’t speak for something like an Airbus or large Boeing, but learning to fly an airplane is as much about motivation and self-discipline as physical ability or raw intelligence, perhaps more so. ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/3 "2019-05-08T20:49:27Z")
Broomstick nailed it, IMHO: flying is a lot like driving in that nearly everyone is capable of learning to fly, but not everyone is capable of learning to fly _well_. A high degree of kinaesthetic awareness and strong spatial reasoning skills certainly help a lot when learning to land an aircraft. But someone of average skill in those areas can totally learn to fly and even have a career as a commercial pilot. A friend who flies for a major US airline complains (gently) that he’s essentially a bus driver. Most of his job, he says, is pressing buttons in an order dictated by one of many checklists. The general public sometimes imagines that a great deal of “piloting skill” is required for everyday hand-flying (non-autopilot) operations, but that’s not really true. According to my friend, seat-of-the-pants piloting skill only comes into play when the extraordinary happens—and a huge part of a pilot’s moment-to-moment duties revolve around keeping ordinary situations from becoming extraordinary. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/4 "2019-05-08T20:58:54Z")
I fly business jets, was an airline guy for a while too, and I think flying isn’t terribly hard. But doing it well, doing it efficiently, that takes some experience and possibly some aptitude. Incidentally, I never intended to fly planes for a living. Never thought I’d see anything bigger or faster than maybe a Twin Comanche. I started late compared to many (first solo two days prior to my 30th birthday), which I think has worked against me. The younger people I work with are excellent, and I think their internalizing the subtleties of the profession at an earlier age makes them better than I’m ever likely to be. But I’d say anyone with basic intelligence and health can learn to fly, sure. And there are plenty of airlines around the world that put very low-time pilots in the right seat of a big jet. That practice has its detractors, but mostly they get along OK. A lot of whether a person progresses to that level depends on where they are, who they know, what sort of experience they accrue as they train, and… luck. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/5 "2019-05-08T23:17:56Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > Broomstick nailed it, IMHO: **flying is a lot like driving** in that nearly everyone is capable of learning to fly, but not everyone is capable of learning to fly _well_. When was the last time you landed a car? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/6 "2019-05-08T23:43:03Z")
I don’t know how it compares but when I used a PC flight simulator it was pretty hard to correctly land the plane at first but it did not take me too long to make a safe landing. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/7 "2019-05-09T00:02:02Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > When was the last time you landed a car? > > 😃 About 15 minutes ago, in the sense I parked it. I have made literally thousands of successful landings in an airplane. Can you pull on and off a busy freeway at rush hour? Then you should be able to manage landing an airplane. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/8 "2019-05-09T00:13:35Z")
Actual pilots, please correct me if I’m wrong, but won’t at least some small planes leave the ground without you touching the stick if you get them rolling fast enough? Of course we know they will come back to the ground if they slow down enough. Couldn’t you “fly” simply by pushing the throttle forward and pulling it back. Mind you, I’m not asking if you’d _live_, but going up, staying up for a few seconds, and coming down was good enough for the Wright Brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/9 "2019-05-09T00:13:57Z")
My 16 year old son has been taking flying lessons over the past year. He says simply “flying the plane” is pretty easy. Also according to him, landing is the most difficult part, and even that’s not too hard after lots of practice. I’m guessing the hard part of flying is twofold: 1. Knowing what to do in case something goes wrong. 2. Learning all the rules and regulations. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/10 "2019-05-09T00:21:59Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > When was the last time you landed a car? > > 😃 When I was living in Japan, I had a couple of those experience lessons for flying on a trip to the States. I told the accounting manager about it, and she commented that flying must be easier than driving since you don’t have to make lane changes in busy traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/11 "2019-05-09T00:31:12Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Actual pilots, please correct me if I’m wrong, but won’t at least some small planes leave the ground without you touching the stick if you get them rolling fast enough? Of course we know they will come back to the ground if they slow down enough. Couldn’t you “fly” simply by pushing the throttle forward and pulling it back Yep, in fact, given a sufficiently long runway there is some merit to putting the throttle forward and letting it take off on its own (of course, you are ready to take action if required). And yes, you can fly using throttle to change altitude. You need to have various things adjusted to do that and achieve level flight, but it’s analogous, on a certain level, to having the steering properly aligned in your car. (There are some differences, too, but I don’t want to get too technical here) > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > My 16 year old son has been taking flying lessons over the past year. > > He says simply “flying the plane” is pretty easy. Also according to him, landing is the most difficult part, and even that’s not too hard after lots of practice. > > I’m guessing the hard part of flying is twofold: > > 1. Knowing what to do in case something goes wrong. > > 2. Learning all the rules and regulations. ^ This. > [@TokyoBayer](#): > > I told the accounting manager about it, and she commented that flying must be easier than driving since you don’t have to make lane changes in busy traffic. Well… not most places but flying over the city of Chicago where O’Hare airspace butts up against Midway airspace can get… interesting. The resemblance to the Dan Ryan or Eisenhower freeways has been noted. We are not going to bring up flying into the big annual Oshkosh fly-in… _\>cough\<_ Yeah, pretty much what she said. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/12 "2019-05-09T00:51:10Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > We are not going to bring up flying into the big annual Oshkosh fly-in… Actually, some well thought out (and tolerably simple) procedures make this rather easy. I think the general answer is that modern aircraft are mostly easy to fly, assuming that things are going right. It’s when things (e.g. wind and weather) go wrong that they can become profoundly challenging. This can happen quickly. It’s also worth noting that flying tests your judgment more often and more severely than driving. And it’s wildly inconsistent in the penalty you suffer for a lapse in judgment, skill or attention: sometimes shocking mistakes produce mere amusement; at other times, trivial missteps are fatal. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/13 "2019-05-09T01:18:20Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Well… not most places but flying over the city of Chicago where O’Hare airspace butts up against Midway airspace can get… interesting. The resemblance to the Dan Ryan or Eisenhower freeways has been noted. Are pilots making decisions in that case? I thought radar approach or ATC or something would be telling the pilots what to do? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/14 "2019-05-09T01:20:23Z")
I have a pilots license, small craft obviously. It’s necessary to ‘feel’ the plane the same way you feel the car when parallel parking, but to a greater degree. The larger the plane the more of a delay between what you do and what you feel which makes any manual control more difficult. Sure, some stuff is automated, but we aren’t at the point where anyone can push a big red button and everyone safely ends up in Miami. I know many people who cannot parallel park. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/15 "2019-05-09T01:43:32Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Are pilots making decisions in that case? I thought radar approach or ATC or something would be telling the pilots what to do? It’s more a collaboration than one party ordering the other around. The pilots tell ATC what they want to do. ATC then tries to juggle all the requests so to the greatest extent possible everyone gets what they want. But if ATC tells a pilot to do something hazardous (because people are human and Stuff Happens) then the pilot needs to have the balls to (depending on how urgent the situation is) either tell ATC “no, I can’t do that” or take action to avoid an immediate catastrophe THEN tell ATC what the hell is going on. That could be avoiding a flock of birds, or another aircraft as two of the most likely scenarios. Another Long Story From Broomstick: [spoiler]You do sometimes have hair-raising situations. I flew out of Chicago Executive back when it was still Palwaukee Airport. The airspace for that airport is entirely overlaid by O’Hare’s airspace, so you have layers of air traffic stacked 3 or 4 layers deep at times over that area - essentially separate lanes for everyone, assuming everyone stays where they’re supposed to be. It’s all fine as long as things go according to plan, sure, you’re little two or four seat Cessna might get its wings _slightly_ rocked by the 737 or Airbus or 747 passing overhead but that’s the exten of it. But imagine what happens if you’re going down a freeway and someone loses control and slides across multiple lanes of traffic. Pretty damn scary. Well, with airplanes it’s not in two dimensions, it’s in three, and speeds vary from 60-70 for the small planes to several hundred miles an hour for the big ones. That’s a bigger difference in speed than between, say, a skateboard or bicycle and a car or truck going down the freeway, and also a much greater size/mass differential. I was flying in that area one time when someone in a small twin engine started cutting through Palwaukee’s airspace without talking to ATC, cutting off other traffic, then _flew over to O’Hare_. At which point, no joke, _our_ guy said “have to talk to O’Hare” and dropped off our channel. Now, you can see the big jets going into and out of O’Hare from over Palwaukee, they’re only 11 miles apart, and all of a sudden the nice, orderly lines of jets going in and out suddenly broke up and dispersed. Meanwhile, those of us over Palwaukee are having to talk to each other and watch out for each other while ATC deals with the situation. Eventually, the guy landed at a decommissioned airfield north of O’Hare, at which point he was arrested. The thing is, unlike on a freeway you get some lunatic doing crazy shit, when you’re in an airplane you can actually talk to the people in the other vehicles. It’s very helpful. There are also standard procedures for when you lose radio contact or when ATC is not available and pilots switch over to those as soon as needed. So, while Palwaukee ATC was talking to the O’Hare tower warning them about the loose cannon we all had to watch out for each other and take responsibility ourselves for keeping things safe. Which is not terribly hard to do for a few minutes for sane competent pilots (basically, anyone cleared to land did so and the rest of us circled the field in a safe manner, the equivalent of staying in our traffic lanes until the traffic cop came back and told us what to do). Crazy situations are not pleasant to be in, driving or flying. You are far, far more likely to survive a collision on the freeway than you are to survive a collision in the air.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/16 "2019-05-09T02:08:24Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > It’s more a collaboration than one party ordering the other around. > > The pilots tell ATC what they want to do. ATC then tries to juggle all the requests so to the greatest extent possible everyone gets what they want. But if ATC tells a pilot to do something hazardous (because people are human and Stuff Happens) then the pilot needs to have the balls to (depending on how urgent the situation is) either tell ATC “no, I can’t do that” or take action to avoid an immediate catastrophe THEN tell ATC what the hell is going on. That could be avoiding a flock of birds, or another aircraft as two of the most likely scenarios Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks! > [@](#): > > Well, with airplanes it’s not in two dimensions, it’s in three This is why we will never have flying cars. At least not like depicted in the Back to the Future movies. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/17 "2019-05-09T02:39:35Z")
I would posit that, while there are good drivers and bad drivers, the bad drivers could, in fact, learn to be good drivers. Most of them just aren’t inclined to do so. And I expect that the same thing is true of flight. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/18 "2019-05-09T08:09:49Z")
My answer to the OP is no. Some people just don’t have it, whatever “it” is, and never get to fly an aircraft solo. These people are rare but they do exist. I’d suggest that anyone who genuinely struggles with driving would struggle even more with flying. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/19 "2019-05-09T08:49:48Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > About 15 minutes ago, in the sense I parked it. > > I have made literally thousands of successful landings in an airplane. Can you pull on and off a busy freeway at rush hour? Then you should be able to manage landing an airplane. Things change so fast these days… I have to ask: did they change flying from 3 dimensions to 2 while I was sleeping? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682/20 "2019-05-09T11:14:26Z")
It’s an [analogy.](https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/analogy) 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-be-taught-to-fly-a-plane/833682.md?page=2)