I mean, I fully appreciate that it’s “a totally different kind of flying all together!”. (Say it with me!)
Airplane!, of course was a comic farce and it didn’t show many details about actually operating the plane, but the earlier film differs in that respect. In Zero Hour! you do see quite a bit of the instruments and controls, and many of them look familiar even to me as one who has casually played with flightsims but has never come close to being able to land a plane in the game.
So ISTM that even if Ted Stryker had only piloted small fighter planes before, he’d still be familiar enough with the aircraft instruments and controls and the general principles of flying that he could be talked “right down to the ground”. I think it would be especially true if they had a few hours to get used to handling the larger plane. That point was suggested in the earlier film.
I know there are some IRL pilots around here; what do you say?
I’d say almost certainly. Nothing provable, but the Mythbuster’s tested it with a full sized simulator and were successful in landing when they had a professional talk them down.
In their second runs, a licensed pilot give them instructions via radio. With this help, both Adam and Jamie were able to land their planes safely. However, even though the test was a success, the pilot pointed out that most modern planes are so advanced that their autopilot systems can literally land the plane by themselves, negating the need for a civilian pilot.
Since they had no pilot experience at all, seems at least plausible that someone with pilot experience, enough time, and a professional could make it happen.
In this video, a real pilot talks a non-pilot through a 737 landing, in a real simulator (not “Microsoft FS”). IIRC, he crashes the first time but (auto)-lands it the next. The hardest part might be working the radio!
I asked my son about this a few years ago. He mostly likely fills your definition* of “highly experienced small plane pilot”.
He felt the chances were entirely dependent on the airliner’s automation, and the small plane pilot’s ability to find, operate, and set up the required systems to handle the workload for him/her. He felt the chances of “talking someone down” to landing an airliner manually were near zero.
*A few thousand hours in small planes. Also 6 or 7 type-ratings, ranging from King Air to 767.
We’ve had this conversation many times over the years. The job isn’t that difficult. It just takes a lot of practice to perform at the pace of a machine that doesn’t much slower than 3 miles a minute. If you get behind, you die. You will get behind. You will die.
No great harm in the poor Cessna driver giving it a go; what alternative do they have? But my money is all on a smoking hole not even near the airport.
Flight sim nerd here. Well, it’s been a few years. I even wrote code for my phone to help with adjusting altitude/speed/glidepath/distance/rate of decent to landing. I think it had 5 variables. Put in 3 and it would calculate the other 2 (something like that, I don’t really remember). I probably could ‘hit’ the airport. All other bets are off. Throw in a crosswind and I would be totally jacked.
OK, so the non-pilot gets into the pilot’s seat, and all he has to do is turn on autopilot and he’s good, is that what I’m reading? Is it a big, flashing red button that anyone could readily see even if they’re not looking for it?
Also, does autopilot shut itself off once the craft is on the ground? What does the non-pilot do then? Hit the brakes, stop in the middle of the runway, and let the airport’s emergency crews sort things out from there?
Watch the video I posted — it will answer your questions.
In the ten minutes before landing, one must set up the autopilot to capture the glide slope, and one must do several other tasks, including extending the flaps around the right time (and, of course, lowering the gear). And, monitor the airspeed.
The last minute is the easiest - sit back and watch that baby flare. Just after touchdown, though, one must be ready to gently use the rudder pedals, to keep on the centerline as it slows (autobrakes) to a stop.
I’ve written about this before and linked to Patrick Smith’s article on the topic. A lay person has no chance whatsoever configuring an auto-pilot to land successfully without serious help.
Landing at an airport is one thing, but what about a ditching on a highway, or a corn field, or some other flat-ish surface, with a reasonable chance of several survivors? That seems like a much, much lower bar to clear.
A professionally flown off airport landing on land, even permissive land, ends up with very few and possibly no survivors. Done by an amateur the result is almost certain total loss.
Ref Sully, a ditching into smooth ocean or lake or big cleared river has a much higher probability of success. Minus of course the additional difficulty of avoiding drowning after the survivors escape from whatever is left of the airplane.
It seems like a much higher bar, to me. Airports are places designed to make it easy for planes to land there. Corn fields are not. The airport has the best kind of landing surface, and radar, and air traffic controllers right there who can get a visual on what’s going on, and emergency vehicles present on standby to do things like put out any fires that might start, and so on.
More than that, for some planes and in some conditions (again, see the video I posted), you can auto land at an airport with ILS approach capability (certain radio beacons near the end of a runway).
Say there’s no need to hit a linear runway, say it’s something like the Utah salt flats, which are used to measure land speed records for rocket cars. If a rocket car can safely do 622 mph, it ought to be suitable enough to land an airliner, right? You can pick whatever vector is into the wind, and the margins for overshoot/undershoot are very generous.
The salt flats are probably about the best non-airport landing site you’ll find, but they still lack radar and beacons and emergency response and so on. And in the sort of emergency where an amateur is landing an airliner, the plane doesn’t need to hit a linear runway, either: ATC will put all other traffic in a holding pattern, and respond appropriately if the plane lands across a taxiway or something.
A non-pilot like me has no chance. When I flew in the copilot seat, I could not understand the instructions from the tower. In fact, I could not have figured how to use the radio, although that may have improved (this was in the 1960s).
I’m a Cessna pilot and a longtime flight sim enthusiast. I feel like I have a good shot at it because I understand ILS approaches and the autopilot controls. Understanding speeds and the autothrottle are probably the biggest hurdles. I know where the flap controls are and how to trim if I need to. So I’d say I stand a good chance.
I only ask for two things: enough fuel to take a few cracks at the approach and a working radio with a controller I can talk to. I’m happy to fly a hold while they get a type-certified pilot on the frequency to give me all the speeds and engine thrust checks I’d need.
If you’ll grant me those things, I’m not really sure how I can fall behind the airplane to a degree that’d cause a smoking crater. I’d at worst go around and try again. It’s not like I’m going to stall the thing or run into terrain.
So let’s just say I’m in a 737 with fair conditions and good visibility. I have clearance to land and I can see the airport. I’m just going to guess (without Googling anything just now) that I’m going to set up a 10-mile final at, oh, 180 kts? I’ll check the tape or a placard to see what flap setting that should be and so I’m guessing…10? 15 degrees? At 7 to 5 miles out, I’ll slow to 160, flaps 20. 3 miles out, flaps 30, 140 or 150 kts, gear down. The whole time, throttle in the CLB gate and trying to control a descent rate at like 800-900 fpm. At some point, brake switch to 3 or RTO and I’ll arm spoilers.
How’d I do, real pilots? I think I could do it. But there’s really only one way to know for sure…
