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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

#141

Post by 93po »

Nextgrid wrote: post #37
asdfman123 wrote: post #22

I 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…

Decently sized plane was stolen, did many loops, and flew around just fine for more than an hour: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Horizon_Air_Q400_incident

All by a guy with zero flight experience but also credited playing video games

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#142

Post by Nextgrid »

textide wrote: post #108
Nextgrid wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

PMDG just released their 737-700 plane for the new Microsoft Flight Simulator. It has incredible fidelity, including a nearly fully functional FMC. Some real world 737 pilots have released reviews on YouTube in the last couple of days.

A long time ago when I downloaded a simulator I naively assumed it would faithfully simulate the inner workings of the plane (and even run the actual software that the real flight computers ran) - if I pull this circuit breaker, what happens? If I flip it 10 times quickly, does it mess up the network and break everything? I was rather disappointed that it just blanked the screens and they came back up instantly as soon as the power bus was re-powered.

Another way to say: don't let me into any airplane's cockpit - not just because I'll crash it, but because I'll manage to break it on the ground before it even has a chance of flying.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#144

Post by cecilpl2 »

imwillofficial wrote: post #120
cecilpl2 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a gender neutral pronoun.

How is it different than using “their”?

Some people feel like "their" is plural and therefore invented a singular gender-neutral pronoun.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#146

Post by outworlder »

cecilpl2 wrote: post #115
Nextgrid wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

When I did my private license 20 years ago, my instructor asked me whether I had previous experience playing flight simulators. She said that people who had usually required more time in the cockpit to unlearn all the bad habits they had acquired from games. Maybe things have changed since the days of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000.

They haven't - unless you are playing in VR, then at least one can be averted.

One of the bad habits is looking at instruments all the time, while you should be looking out the windows. VR on the other hand encourages you to look out (because it's fun, and it feels like you are really looking out). Head tracking is a very distant cousin, but may help a little.

The rest, I don't think you can avoid. No force feedback, no chair pressure (even if you have pedals you may not know you are uncoordinated), you can't feel the aircraft, and so on.

But bad habits are just that. In a life and death situation like this pilot incapacitation story, I'd rather have some bad habits but understand what's happening and what should be done, versus not even knowing which button to push to talk to ATC, and how to keep the plane flying.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#147

Post by cecilpl2 »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #135
cecilpl2 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is why you should always leave enough space in front of you so that you can react and safely come to a stop if the car in front were to suddenly hit a pileup.

The braking distance at 70mph is a huge 75m, which is about 9 London buses. Add your reaction time, and do you aee why distances of over 100m between cars are slightly unrealistic?

No, at 70mph (31m/s) you travel 100 metres in 3.2 seconds. I was always taught 3 seconds on the highway is a safe following distance, and 4 seconds in adverse weather conditions like rain.

It's not at all unrealistic - it's safe.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#148

Post by outworlder »

cecilpl2 wrote: post #117
jonny_eh wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a multi-car pileup, the car immediately in front of you literally stops in an instant, much faster than if it were to fully hit the brakes. It's much faster than any driver could realistically expect. It can happen so fast, you may not even see brake lights turn on. It's why these pileups can get so surprisingly large.

That is why you should always leave enough space in front of you so that you can react and safely come to a stop if the car in front were to suddenly hit a pileup.

Right. Other people will see the gap and will insert themselves in it. What then?

I try to keep a healthy distance, but I've never been able to reserve enough distance to account the car in front of me hitting a brick wall.

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#149

Post by chernevik »

jmkni wrote: post #53

Stupid question, but could this guy end up in some sort of legal trouble? He's obviously a hero and saved the lives of everyone on board, but it's still illegal to fly a plane while unqualified, right?

IANAL but: - Wouldn't be surprised if general legal doctrine allows neglect of law in emergency - Clearly no intent to violate the law/regulations - Good luck getting a jury to convict - What's the penalty, loss of pilot's license the guy doesn't have?

Re: Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated

#150

Post by jt2190 »

albert_e wrote: post #136
brightball wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard the story on the radio this morning and they said that not only was the controller a certified instructor but he flew this specific plane so he knew how to direct him to everything on the panel! Really incredible bit of coincidence.

On the contrary the CNN story [0] said the controller was NOT familiar with this specific plane so he got a print out of the dashboard of that model so that he can guide the "pilot" properly. There was also a picture. [0] https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/florida-passenger-lan...

Text-only: https://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_058efe221cb8dff299fa7abcf3...
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