Simviation Forums

when we land a plane...lets say a 747 in FS, we actually sit in the middle. so when we are alligned with the rwy centerline, the plane also is perfectly lined up. but when you see this pic, you can clearly see that each pilot sits on one site of the centerline, so their view is different when they are lined up with the centerline...what do you think



by the way, i wonder how that co-pilot looks like from the other site  ;)

you aim for a little to your side of the centerline, in the bigger planes, in the smaller planes the offset is so small theres no need to adjust

Some panels have special markers which you can align with the centerline

You have just fallen prey to one of the most common problems new pilots experience, transitioning to bigger A/C. New pilots in big A/C tend to land to the right of centerline, and this picture perfectly illustrates why. The aircraft is lined up with the centerline,but it would appear either pilot would have a different perspective. "put the runway between you legs" is what I have to constantly preach to new F.O.'s. The distance between the two seats is about three feet. The width of the centerline of the runway, on a big runway like this, is about TWO feet! If you think you can judge a one foot margin from this distance, you ARE good.

Some panels have special markers which you can align with the centerline

This is true, but this is for coordination(so you don't "side-load" the aircraft), not centerline alignment. When I transition from one seat to the other I have to use a reference on each side of the panel for this. Think about the 747, where the main gear is 50' or so behind you. You may be centered in the cockpit, but the "mains" can be ten feet off of centerline. As long as your tracking straight down the centerline(runway between your legs), and your ref. point is centered, everything should be straight! I have
found though, that on the sim, you need a reference point on the dash to keep some of the big airplanes on centerline. Which is just the opposite of what I just told you.  But this is just one of the quirks of the sim, it's getting better, but still not as good as the real thing! :-/
Speaking of cockpit reference points, it's standard procedure on the 747 to reference the GPS or INS for grounspeed, before turning off of the runway. Pilots sometimes overload the gear, exiting the runway because the illusion is, they have come to a stop, when in reality they're still traveling at 60KTS or more!

I just checked into the avg runway width of long runways, and the numbers I find are 45m/150ft so as OTTOL says, the distance between the seats isn't going to make a shadows worth of difference, on that wide an area.........

So in other words, in an airliner size ship, line the center line up with say...the FMC?

Wouldn't know about that(too busy sending Emails and playing chess on the ACARS, when the plane is landing itself!)