Garmin's got a relatively new system called Autoland that is designed for this exact situation. It allows a plane to land simply by pushing one button. It will pick the nearest appropriate airport, communicate with ATC, and land the plane entirely on its own. It's pretty amazing technology: https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/garmin-autoland-thi...
Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated
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Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated
#32>air traffic controllers were able to locate the plane on radar and walk the passenger through how to land the small plane Are ATCOs actually trained for this kind of situation?
One of the better snl's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGRcJQ9tMbY
As long as we're celebrating the Scottish accent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqAu-DDlINs
Never gets old :-)
Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated
#33ATC audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MDwzNtDMlA Listening to the passenger, it does sound like they have a modicum of flight experience.
Agreed. He even understands some of the lingo. Doesn't mean he knew how to fly any airplane (or land one!) but he seems at least technically minded.
Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated
#34Mythbusters once went to a commercial airline simulator to test the idea that a passenger with no training could land the plane. Without ATC help, it wasn't a great outcome. With ATC, they faired much better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ8K-hOcRHk
Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated
#35>air traffic controllers were able to locate the plane on radar and walk the passenger through how to land the small plane Are ATCOs actually trained for this kind of situation?
Yes, in most cases, but also modern aircraft over the last 50 years has become very safe. The plane practically flies itself.
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Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated
#36I bet this was a guy raised on video games. I was about to make a joke about it but I'm actually serious. Once I, a former Houstonian with no experience driving on ice, was driving through the snowy mountains and lost control of my car. Instead of panicking, my video-game-induced laser focus kicked in and I calmly piloted the car until the wheels gained traction and I could park the car on the side of the road. But l…
"Moore is suspected of being responsible for approximately 100 thefts in Washington, Idaho, and Canada, including bicycles, automobiles, light aircraft, and speedboats.[15] It is believed that he learned how to fly small planes by reading aircraft manuals, handbooks, watching a "How to fly a small airplane" DVD, and playing flight simulator computer games.[17] One plane he stole was a Cessna 182, FAA registration number N24658, belonging to then KZOK-FM radio personality Bob Rivers, valued at over $150,000.[20] The plane was later recovered from a Yakama Indian Reservation crash site. Though badly damaged, it was rebuilt and is in Florida."
"He became known as the "Barefoot Bandit" by reportedly committing some of his crimes barefoot, once leaving behind 39 chalk footprints and the word "c'ya!". Despite the widely reported nickname, officials said that he more often wore shoes."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colton_Harris_Moore
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/the-airpla...
Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated
#37I bet this was a guy raised on video games. I was about to make a joke about it but I'm actually serious. Once I, a former Houstonian with no experience driving on ice, was driving through the snowy mountains and lost control of my car. Instead of panicking, my video-game-induced laser focus kicked in and I calmly piloted the car until the wheels gained traction and I could park the car on the side of the road. But l…
Video game experience is absolutely better than no experience.
On small general aviation planes, the feature set is quite minimal and most simulators will replicate all of it faithfully enough, so the only remaining thing is the “feel” of the plane which you can hopefully experience a bit during flight before landing.
In contrast, a big passenger jet has insane amounts of different systems that need to be configured - not only are those typically not fully replicated in consumer-grade simulators (you probably don’t want to spend 30 minutes configuring your plane for takeoff before being able to start a game) but even a complete simulator such as the one used for pilot training won’t be enough to actually learn all those systems - that’s why it takes years of training.
Simulator-only experience for a big plane? No chance. For a small plane? Yeah if there’s no damage or other edge-cases and the weather is on your side you have good chances of making it especially if you have an instructor on the radio to double-check everything.
Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated
#38bravo! any idea how hard or easy this is? did the passenger land on an airstrip or where? all details lacking
Im not familiar with this plane, but the Airbus a320 has an auto-landing autopilot. I wonder how often that's used though.
Passenger-jet autoland systems still rely on a lot of prior configuration such as dialing in ILS frequencies, setting the right autopilot settings, etc.
Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated
#39Garmin's got a relatively new system called Autoland that is designed for this exact situation. It allows a plane to land simply by pushing one button. It will pick the nearest appropriate airport, communicate with ATC, and land the plane entirely on its own. It's pretty amazing technology: https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/garmin-autoland-thi...
I've always said the reason we don't have flying cars yet is because people can't drive in 2D much less 3D. This gives me hope.