Could you land a 747?

I was talking with a pilot buddy of mine this afternoon and we bantered this one around. He is a commercial pilot for a small Mid West regional and has about 3500 hours. I have about 300 hours and he told me 'Fat Chance' on bringing a 747 down in one piece. I think that I could probably do it...........Better give me a long runway! Not saying what shape the plane would be in, but if talked down by the right person, I think I could 'probably' do OK (for somebody that has not flown anything larger than a 172 and have logged a couple hours - right seat in a twin.

OK....The pilots all drop dead of a stroke. The flight attendant grabs you and pulls you into the cockpit and hands you the headset.

Could you?

 

where does the flight attendant grab us?

 

Peters answer: No, because I have no experience. Maybe if I did lessons and all that, and was more confident of my flying skillz, than sure.

 

I've gotten pretty familiar with the FMC and autopilot in the PDMG 747-400. I would just let it do a CAT III C 0/0 landing at the appropriate airport.

http://www.precisionmanuals.com/priv/pages/prod/fsx/744x.html

RMX

 

I could.

My landing would be deemed a High Performance Landing, followed by a loud boom resulting in a smoldering crater filled with small Boeing atoms.

 

Peter,

Before you try, at least go to Blockbuster and rent Airport 75.

 

No Problem, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

If you have 300 hours in a 172 you could probably land a B747 in such a manner that all the people would survive. I doubt the landing would be pretty, but you probably would be able to find an airport and at least hit the runway in such a manner that most of the people in the back would survive, especially if someone articulate and qualified was talking you through it.

 

Safely?


Walk away..........

 

You, Sir, are not only brilliant, but consistently brilliant.
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I haven't had any seat time in a 747 simulator but I have landed the 767 sim at Delta's training facility in Atlanta and the 727 sim at the UPS training facility in Louisville.

Thes Simulators are not simple machines they are built to be as realistic as possible and are used for reviews for all pilots for the respective airlines.

Here is a video of a 757 landing in one like I flew on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRmhWkfliXQ

Now my training and flight time has basicly been in cessna 172s and 182s. I had no problem adjusting to and flying the 727 it's controls are about as responive and a 172. The 767 is a different animal the controls are a lot more sensitive in it so it took a little getting used to. Once I realized to make very slight adustments when moving the control yoke to turn or adjust the pitch of the nose it was ok.

I was able to land both safely with no problem and this was not even straight in approaches. This was entering the pattern on the downwind leg turning base and then final adjusting flaps, Lowering gear etc. etc.

So that being said I believe I could actually land a 747 or any other large jet if I had someone talking me down giving me information like approach speeds for the aircraft and the like.

 

People do it in movies all the time. If they can do it, why shouldnt I be able to?



If ever I am going to be in a situation where both pilots are killed, no people on board with any flight experience whatsoever, i'd like to be the person to jump in the seat and bring that baby down (Although the chances of that are about 1 in a billion or so). I mean, how hard can it be? get on the radio thing, set flaps to some kind of angle, bring speed down a little, tilt nose a little, dont forget the landing gear. Then aim for the runway and when the wheels touch the ground, yank the e-brake for extra style points.

Imagine the ladies you can pull in clubs. they'll be all over you yo!

 

Let's hope I never have to find out.
(But i'd guess most likely not, though I have flown a couple Cessnas, a Cirrus G3 (for about 20 minutes only) and a Beechcraft "Duchess" (twin) for a little bit). But with someone talking me through it, I could probably get the plane into final approach... After that, maybe land with massive autopilot assistance (I think there is still AP functionality possible on landing)).

Ha ha ha... Nice.

 

Better not do it if the runway is in California. Liability on cracking up a 747 with passengers will probably exceed your coverage

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226130

 

I've played Flight Simulator before, so I think the majority of the passengers would survive if I was in charge. I would also probably try to do a barrel roll once I got hold of the controls.

 

Ask The Pilot addressed this issue:
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2007/12/21/askthepilot258/

 

Sure. I played around with flight simulator a few years ago

 

I saw a mythbusters where they challenged this myth. They ( 2 ) of them were talked in on a simulator and both landed safely.

 

easy peasy.

http://www.wikihow.com/Land-an-Airplane-in-an-Emergency

 

A 747 can land itself. Catch the beam and sit back and relax!

 

Every plane can land itself once.

 

Well yea,though all landings are crashes, some are controlled and some aren't!

 

Any barrista at Starbucks could land one of those ... you have to be skilled in multi-tasking under pressure and be capable of operating complex machinery.

 

Didn't one of "Charlie's Angels" land a 747 safely?

 

Word has it that Gentry conducted all his own test flights..................