Mythbusters: could a passenger land a plane?

[an-225]

In theory -

If I, the PIC, die - then the passengers die. Therfore, I, alone, am the single most important person on this flight.

Most people like to say nay to a scenario like this. As, Charlie (I think, can't remember that far back ) stated, people are going to make the WORST scenario possible out of a passenger landing an airplane (black paint on the windscreen because a tornado collided with a paint factory...lol) however, its not always going to be the case.

In the case that -

20nm visibility gusts to 20knots, wind, 100knots, left engine fire, RWR failure, ECM failure (okay, the last two are just nonsense) electronics out (now windmilling, if the plane has the option to), you are basically crashed. It would be difficult even for a pilot.

40+nm visibility, gusts to 2 knots, wind, 5 knots, cross, left engine fire, right engine fire, fire suppressant on, pitot tube failure, TCAS failure, it would be at an easy to moderate level to survive (provided you have enough time to get into the cockpit and settle down) and land safely.

[Brett_Henderson]

...I could see the look of, "Blimey! Here we bleedin' go again! ...Another one of "Those"!...".... ...!

....LOL... ...!

In just the last few years, I've seen this attitude change, quite a bit. There was a time when the old (probably computer illiterate) instructors would say, "forget everything you've done on that blasted game, and don't ever play it again" ...

Now we've got FS9 installed on one of the club's computers... and instructors use it with their students, quite regularly. We've got an FAA approved computer, running "On Top", set up in it's own room for instrument training... and every instructor favors the desktop PC with FS9 over even that.

The relationships between pitch/power/roll/yaw and how it's related via instruments ....

[FLYING_TRUCKER]

Good afternoon all...

Hi Paul I think you would love this chaps little Cessna 150 with manual flaps and he probably paid less for it than what you paid for one of your bikes.  
It pays to be in the right place at the right time.  

Brett your right about Microsoft Flight Simulator, given a little more time I think the bugs between Nividia and Microsoft will be worked out for better graphics and performance making training a lot more realistic.
I manage to get into the C130 Hercules Simulator several times a year, now being a thirty million plus dollars simulator it is a little different than my three thousand dollar toy at home (I do have plans though) but the C130 simulator has a button on either side of the main center console to pull if things get out of hand, this gently yes gently resettles the beast.  People have known to have gotten thrown around in these things.
Well I like to sideslip and crab the big Herc into some of the short fields, when I look over at the copilot station he has his hand on this button most of the time.    ::)
HMMM...makes me wonder if they have no faith in this flying rocking chair old geezer or are they just protecting their college boy asses...  LMAO  

Hi Sean...you just posted an excellent point that so many aviators and simulator flying folks miss, actually I was a little slow on picking up on it myself (no comment on my slowness either you devil  :)).
That is the "Pre Flight Briefing" and the "Debriefing".  The marks of a good instructor (anykind, not just flying instructor) will be how he carries out these two attributes.
Sure sounds like you have a good instructor.  

Sorry Chris if we got off topic again.

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug

[Chris_F]

Brett your right about Microsoft Flight Simulator, given a little more time I think the bugs between Nividia and Microsoft will be worked out for better graphics and performance making training a lot more realistic....

Sorry Chris if we got off topic again.

I've seen footage from inside the professional flight sims and I'd say that MSFS's graphics, to my eyes, are a lot better.  I don't think the weaknesses with MSFS is graphics, it's probably systems depth and flight modeling.  I have Falcon 4.0 and LOMAC on my PC and if the best of those programs could be combined with the best of MSFS I'd say the experience gained on a sim could be extremely applicable to real world flight, and I'd assume an engine like that would be realistic enough to power a professional level sim (lacking only in cockpit and motion simulation).

As for getting off topic, no worries there.  I'm the king of leading threads astray.  :)