Mythbusters On Talking Planes Down

[cpxxx]

As a working commercial pilot, non airline, I have few hours under my belt now but I can safely say I would probably break any airliner I had to take over. Maybe some passengers would walk away. Maybe not. As for the F4U4, the swing on take off would kill me, that or the torque roll it was famous for when you applied go around power. Take my word for it MyMan, you wouldn't survive in any WW2 fighter without a couple of hundred hours flight time behind you. A lot of trained pilots didn't. If AH was too realistic, most of us wouldn't get off the virtual ground.

Coach then explained, and demonstrated, how the plane can just about land itself. Most planes are like that nowadays. He just set some dials, punched a few buttons and said that was all someone really needed to do, rather than try and land manually.

Yes of course, they just land themselves. But which buttons to push, which dials? The learning curve for a non pilot in an airliner would be horrendous. It would be almost as bad for a light aircraft pilot.

One of the problems with MS flight sims and even AH is that it has given the impression that flying is actually 'easy'. I've had that problem with a non pilot in a position of authority. His 'flying experience' in FSX and his general experience around aeroplanes actually led him to to believe he could actually criticise and advise me on aspects of my flying. I haven't come as close to punching anyone in years. He was dead wrong too, not that he apologised or anything when it became clear. He is about to learn to fly. I will get my apology in due course  

We nearly had an example of someone taking over an airliner when the crew is incapacitated. On the Helios flight from Cyprus to Greece that depressurised and crashed. One F/A was training to be a pilot and got access to the flight deck all too late, just as the fuel ran out. It made no difference to the final result and that guy could actually fly.

So forget your takeover fantasies, flight sim pilots. All that will happen if you take over is that you will be first to arrive at the scene of the crash.

[Toad]

All you have to do to be a top notch pilot is spend the night in a Holiday Inn Express.

[007Rusty]

   

All you have to do to be a top notch pilot is spend the night in a Holiday Inn Express.

[WilldCrd]

I cant speak for anyone else here BUT, I like to think that in the given situation of having to be the hero and take over the plane, when the steward.....errr flight attendant asks if I can fly this thing my response would be like Harrison Fords in one of the indiana jones movies "fly YES! land.....ummm no...."

[Holden McGroin]

Mythbusters is a cool show  And Karie Byron is really hot

Bahh , not close. She's tolerable... id tap it if I were buzzed

you be the judge

[RTHolmes]

I give it 9/10 for Photoshopping 

[Hornet33]

That's allot of air brushing and one hell of a push up bra, no way she looks that good for real.

On a scale of 1-10 I'd give her a 6.5, maybe a 7

[CAP1]

All you have to do to be a top notch pilot is spend the night in a Holiday Inn Express.

CLEANING MY MONITOR.......AGAIN

[Baitman]

In the movie Airplane the fellow that landed the plane wasn't a noob he was a ex-fighter pilot. I wouold hate to imagine what would happen if it were left in the hands of my wife to bring the plane down. It wouldn't be in one piece.

Plot
When the flight crew and numerous passengers aboard a commercial jet succumb to food poisoning, it falls to Ted Striker (Robert Hays), a traumatized ex-fighter pilot, to conquer his fear of flying and land the plane quickly and in poor weather, while air traffic controllers led by Steve McCrosky (Lloyd Bridges) and Rex Kramer (Robert Stack) talk him down. Adding to the tension is the presence of Striker's stewardess ex-girlfriend Elaine (Julie Hagerty), and Striker's negative wartime history with Kramer.

[CyranoAH]

I'm just a private pilot, but I've been lucky enough to learn to fly very different and demanding types of airplanes (C172N,J,R,S, C182Q,T, Maule MT-7, PA27 Aztec, PA18, Robin HR200 and 400, CAP-10B, Zlin Z-50L, Pitts S2B, Sukhoi 29M, Zlin Z326, Z526, Dornier 27, Beech T34 Mentor, Bücker Jungmann BU-131), and if there's one thing I've learned is that you have to approach a new airplane as if you were still a student with 20 hours flying time.

Some of them will forgive you, but others will cause you to groundloop if you just relax for one second on landing.

Having said that, I'd be far more comfortable having to land a highly programmable airliner than a F4U. Even now I believe Cessna is developing a "dead man button" for its Mustang VLJ designed to take the plane to the nearest field and fly a WAAS approach, complete with flare and brakes.

Daniel

[Maverick]

Reading the comments of squeekers who think they have any idea what real flying is like based on an airplane game. Especially a complex high performance airplane.
 

[Baitman]

newer high performance airplanes such as the 777 would be easier to land in IFR conditions than say the old 707. Same could be said for the Cessna Mustang or the P51.

[BoilerDown]

I think I'd have a fair chance at handling an A6M2.  F4U?  You couldn't pay me to step foot in one while it was being towed.

[CAP1]

I think I'd have a fair chance at handling an A6M2.  F4U?  You couldn't pay me to step foot in one while it was being towed.

you fly real airplanes? do you have any tailwheel time? complex time? high performance time?

without the above, i think you're wrong.

a6m2......900 hp, 4,000# empty

[Golfer]

Even now I believe Cessna is developing a "dead man button" for its Mustang VLJ designed to take the plane to the nearest field and fly a WAAS approach, complete with flare and brakes.

Daniel

You're not likely to find that on an aircraft with the price point of the C-510.  That level of a system would require extensive automation including autothrottles and autobrakes.  Neither of which will come on the Mustang. There are systems in place as we speak to act as a wing leveler where if you find yourself in a situation that exceeds your ability, the simple wing leveler can take over if activated to keep you prodding along instead of prodding the ground.

I could see it in theory with an airplane equipped with FADEC and brake-by-wire systems.  Programming another box and calling it whatever the engineer would like, pilot incapacitation controller or something, which would handle those systems separate from the traditional controls is plausible.

With more and more single pilot jets coming onto the market the odds of an incapacitation are improving but so rare that it most likely doesn't wouldn't justify the cost of such a system and upkeep.  Yet one more reason that operating a business jet single pilot is nothing more than being cheap.