# How hard is it to fly an Airplane? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 2, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792 "2013-03-02T03:00:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/21 "2013-03-02T15:40:38Z")
My father flew a private plane and let me take the controls when I was a teen. They’re not that hard to control in the air; the difficulty it takeoff and landing. Note that light plane are designed to be very stable and forgiving. My father hated computer flying simulations because the slightest error would cause a crash; in a real plane, no one would fly anything like that (excluding military jets, of course). ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/22 "2013-03-02T15:42:49Z")
> [@Mdcastle](#): > > Hypothetically, what kind of response would you get if you went to a flight school and said "I want to take a flying lesson, but I’m not interested in hiring you for 50 hours to get a pilots license, I just think it would be fun to go up in a small airplane for an hour or two. I’ve given out dozens of free rides. Show up at just about any small airport, take an interest, and it’s quite easy to bum a free ride. If you are anybody else is in the North TX area, look me up. I’m a two hours drive northwest of Dallas/Ft.Worth. I fly experimentals these days. Current plane is a Van’s Aircraft, RV-6. I hope you like flying upside down. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/23 "2013-03-02T15:50:01Z")
I’m a long ways from Texas, unfotunately My experience with computer flight simulators is what made me wonder how hard it was to control a real plane. Granted a keyboard isn’t the ideal interface and I never made an effort to learn them , but I’d start up, touch some random control, and crash within seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/24 "2013-03-02T16:12:54Z")
Taking off is easy. Just keep it pointed in the right direction. An airplane _wants_ to fly, and the type being discussed here all have positive stability. Flying is easy too, if you don’t let things get out of hand. Even then, given enough altitude the airplane will probably sort itself out if you just let go. Landing is another matter. You’re trying to put the aircraft down at a specific place at a specific speed and without pranging it. Still, we have a 100% record. We haven’t left one up there yet! 😛 Airplanes _can_ land themselves, given the right conditions. For example, [this F-106 Delta Dart](http://www.f-106deltadart.com/71fis_PilotlessLanding_580787.htm) landed itself after the pilot punched out and was returned to service. The B-24 [_Lady Be Good_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Be_Good_(aircraft)) made a survivable landing in the desert after the crew bailed out. (They did not survive.) When a properly-trimmed airplane runs out of fuel, it will glide to a landing of some sort. If it happens to come down in a large, flat area, it might land itself quite safely. Those Guillow’s balsa airplanes, gas-powered free-flight airplanes, and those little, flat balsa gliders they have at the convenience store do it all the time. The hard part is making an airplane land where you want it, when you want it. I disagree with the poster who said 90% of learning to fly is communications and navigation. Landing is a big part of it. (As are emergency procedures.) [Sporty’s Pilot Shop](http://www.sportys.com/PilotShop/) had a video for non-pilots that gave advice on what to do if the pilot becomes incapacitated. At least I think they did. I can’t find it now. They do have a DVD called [_Introduction to Flying - A Non-Pilot’s Guide_](http://www.sportys.com/PilotShop/product/10961). ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/25 "2013-03-02T16:26:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Landing is another matter. You’re trying to put the aircraft down at a specific place at a specific speed and without pranging it. Still, we have a 100% record. We haven’t left one up there yet! 😛 I’ll have to remember that one. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/26 "2013-03-02T16:32:15Z")
> [@razncain](#): > > However, the skills required to land a plane vs taking off are much more difficult to acquire. I agree. I handled the take off by myself on my very first lesson. By my third or fourth lesson, I was able to manage landing, but with much assistance. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/27 "2013-03-02T16:34:36Z")
> [@Mdcastle](#): > > My experience with computer flight simulators is what made me wonder how hard it was to control a real plane. Granted a keyboard isn’t the ideal interface and I never made an effort to learn them , but I’d start up, touch some random control, and crash within seconds. I tried MS Flight Simulator about a dozen years ago. I didn’t have all of the goodies **AndrewL** ’s brother has; just a joystick. Never got into it. (I played _Red Baron_ a lot.) One thing about flying games is that you don’t get motion. When you advance the throttle on take-off in a real airplane, you’re pushed back in your seat like when you’re driving a car. When you lift off, you feel it in your butt. When you bank in flight, you feel the g-forces. Your typical flight sim game isn’t going to give you those sensations. A computer game will teach you some of the concepts, and as mentioned by others they might save your life; but you really need to _feel_ how it is to control an aircraft. (Aside: We went to New Orleans a couple of months ago. I was looking out the window, and even in a transport-category aircraft – in which I have zero experience as a pilot – I could tell by feel it was going to be a hard landing. It was.) I support the suggestions that you spend a hundred clams and go up with an instructor for an hour. Even if you don’t pursue a license, it would be a good experience. And it will be fun. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/28 "2013-03-02T16:35:38Z")
> [@razncain](#): > > I’ll have to remember that one. 😃 I stole it from **Rick**. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TaoPilot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TaoPilot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaoPilot)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/29 "2013-03-02T18:45:53Z")
It’s very simple. You push the stick forward, and the houses get bigger. You pull the stick back, and the houses get smaller. You pull the stick back even more, and the houses get bigger again. ---
**Author:** ![TaoPilot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TaoPilot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaoPilot)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/30 "2013-03-02T18:55:21Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Pilot’s licenses are much more strict. The divisions include very specific equipment like with or without retractable landing gear, variable pitch props, multiple engines, deicing etc., all which can be things on roughly similarly sized and/or model of aircraft. I’m not aware of any division for aircraft with deicing equipment, and the retractable landing gear and variable pitch props only require a logbook endorsement. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/31 "2013-03-02T19:36:20Z")
Thinking about PC sims… I took a friend up in a helicopter once, and he insisted that he’d be able to fly it. He had a lot of hours playing a combat helicopter game. I told him if he tried it, he would die. This is the same guy who hung his leg out the door as I was taking off, pressing down on the collective. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![StrangerThanFiction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f05b48/32.png) [@StrangerThanFiction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrangerThanFiction)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/32 "2013-03-02T19:43:46Z")
I’m a flight instructor and a corporate pilot. In my opinion, the short answer is that an average person might be able to walk away from a light airplane if all of the conditions were good - plenty of fuel, good visibility, high ceilings, light winds, daytime, and somewhere open to land - preferably a nice, long, straight section of highway with no obstructions. If you can get a hold of somebody on the radio, the chances of survival increase dramatically. But if the average Joe was plopped into the left seat of a jet at 38,000 feet and told good luck, there is no doubt in my mind that he and all of his friends would end up as a smokin’ hole in the ground, radio contact or not. As **Hail Ants** wrote, jets are just very unforgiving. There might be a tiny sliver of a possibility of survival if Average Joe had spent many many hours in front of his computer with flight simulator representing a similar aircraft type, but I really doubt it. Regarding autoland: if you’re lucky enough to even be on an airplane with the capability, it takes an awful lot of button pushing to set up, and if a single step is missed, forget it. I think it would be ugly no matter how you slice it. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/33 "2013-03-02T19:46:23Z")
I am taking my checkride (test) to get my private pilot certificate on Monday. I don’t think most people could land safely without training. Most people will assume that the stick or yoke makes it go up and down and the the throttle makes it go slow or fast, but in many cases the reverse is true. You certainly do not want to dive at the runway. Most switches in small planes are for lights which will not hurt anything if you flip them. Turning off the master switch will kill all your radios and electronics but the engine will still work. If the airplane has electric flaps or a retractable gear, it will disable those too. If you had to land one, you could probably be talked through it. Use the yoke to hold a given speed (push forward to go faster, pull back to slow down). Hold the speed within 10 knots or so and use the throttle to control your up and down motion. Find a 10,000 foot runway with calm wind and you can probably land well enough to not be seriously injured. That’s in a small, single engine airplane. In a high-power airplane or a multi-engine airplane, your chances go way down. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/34 "2013-03-02T21:32:12Z")
> [@StrangerThanFiction](#): > > I’m a flight instructor and a corporate pilot. In my opinion, the short answer is that an average person might be able to walk away from a light airplane if all of the conditions were good - plenty of fuel, good visibility, high ceilings, light winds, daytime, and somewhere open to land - preferably a nice, long, straight section of highway with no obstructions. If you can get a hold of somebody on the radio, the chances of survival increase dramatically. But if the average Joe was plopped into the left seat of a jet at 38,000 feet and told good luck, there is no doubt in my mind that he and all of his friends would end up as a smokin’ hole in the ground, radio contact or not. As **Hail Ants** wrote, jets are just very unforgiving. There might be a tiny sliver of a possibility of survival if Average Joe had spent many many hours in front of his computer with flight simulator representing a similar aircraft type, but I really doubt it. Regarding autoland: if you’re lucky enough to even be on an airplane with the capability, it takes an awful lot of button pushing to set up, and if a single step is missed, forget it. I think it would be ugly no matter how you slice it. I’d like a shot at it in a simulator. If I didn’t have to worry about fuel it would mean very small changes in power and pitch to avoid the unknown. Once you get it down to 15 or 20,000 it should fly more like a normal airplane. Then it’s just a matter of finding a long runway with good over-run space and slamming it on the numbers. Assuming a no-flap high-speed final I’d pull the power 100 feet off the deck and hope the brakes make it to the other end of the runway. The simulator fire department can put the tires out when they catch on fire. ---
**Author:** ![solosam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@solosam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solosam)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/35 "2013-03-03T00:40:40Z")
Flying is actually extremely easy. I once had the good fortune of being instructed in a military B-1 simulator at Ellsworth AFB. I could take off, fly, and land with absolutely minimal instruction. 99% of those buttons are never used… until something goes wrong. Then they suddenly become very, very important. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/36 "2013-03-03T01:20:34Z")
Fast airplanes are harder to fly. You have to stay mentally ahead of all aircraft, but the faster it is the more time and distance that implies. A big airliner has to start the landing process an east coast state away from the runway in order to end up at the correct altitude and airspeed to land without wasting a lot of time circling down. Navigation is far more demanding than non-pilots tend to assume. When driving, you end up wherever the road goes. Any flight instructor can get a new student to the point that they have no idea where the airport they took off from 10 minutes ago is now without even trying hard. Just keeping an airplane headed one direction for any length of time has to be learned, and to arrive at a distant point efficiently you also need to be compensating for wind. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/37 "2013-03-03T04:56:56Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Thinking about PC sims… > > I took a friend up in a helicopter once, and he insisted that he’d be able to fly it. He had a lot of hours playing a combat helicopter game. I told him if he tried it, he would die. > > This is the same guy who hung his leg out the door as I was taking off, pressing down on the collective. :rolleyes: I am surprised he did that after the pre-flight safety talk you had with him, especially about going up in a touchy small helio. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/38 "2013-03-03T05:10:26Z")
It surprised me too. (And yes, I did point out things Not To Touch.) ---
**Author:** ![TaoPilot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TaoPilot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaoPilot)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/39 "2013-03-03T05:11:22Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > I am taking my checkride (test) to get my private pilot certificate on Monday. Alright! Best of luck to you, sir! Remember, the DE already assumes you are a private pilot, your job is to just not prove them wrong. I just realized, tomorrow is my tenth anniversary for getting my private certificate. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792/40 "2013-03-03T06:31:18Z")
> [@dstarfire](#): > > … but actually taking the controls for a while gives you a new perspective on it. A friend let me take over the controls during one of our flights in his Cessna 172. Once aloft, flying turned out to be surprisingly easy. Watch your horizon, know how to go up and down, be mindful of the throttle and airspeed and tachometer, give a bit of rudder, and bank the wings on the turns–not really a problem. Important instruments that you don’t have on a car, such as the altimeter and artificial horizon, can be learned in a few minutes. But. You also have to know how to take off, and how to land. You need to know what the ATC is telling you over the radio, and what it means–there will likely be other traffic in the area, both in the air and on the ground. You need to know how to understand the weather reports from the airport’s weather office. You need to know how to “check out” the aircraft before you fly: trim tabs, flaps working, no water in the fuel tank, correct fuel in the tank, among many other things. You need to know the paperwork: flight plans, logbooks, aircraft maintenance records, your license, etc. I’m missing a lot, I know; but the point is, there is a lot more to aviation than just flying. As I said, operating the aircraft once you’re up there is easy. But that’s not all there is to it. There is a lot more to be learned and mastered. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-fly-an-airplane/651792.md?page=3)