http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogSz5k7cKLU Piece of cake. After coming out of the pattern, It's like landing an F-18 Hornet but on a 20 mile descent to the runway instead of 1-1/2
Yes. Imagine a sweaty fat man standing at the end of his driveway wearing nothing but roller skates from the the 70's, flapping his flabby arms vigorously about and making jet noises with his lips, and you've got yourself a genuine Gentry test flight.
Not a pilot here. That being said I do work in maintenance (avionics) and am familiar with aircraft systems and how they work as well as typical aircraft operations. I could probably get it on the ground in one or two large pieces with limited loss of life...... I'm just being honest here.....it could probably be done....but it would be FAR from pretty.....
You are correct. Pre 9/11 and onboard a brand new Air Mexico airbus, I got to sit in the cockpit jump seat when we 80 miles out of Guad. I asked the Captain how good the auto pilot was. He looked at the co-pilot, giggled and started throwing switches and pushing buttons. That damn plane not only landed itself, but brought the plane to a safe taxi speed, all hands 100% off. It was a VERY awesome experience!
"The flight attendant grabs you by the cockpit ...." Well, that's one way to control a rowdy drunk. (ouch!) Well, yes: someone with no flight experience wouldn't really be able to make a normal metering and spacing standard terminal arrival, run through the stack, approach, and landing under normal procedures. But, as my flight instructor once told me after a sim run: "That was good -- except that when you have no gyros, you actually *would* declare an emergency." ("Why? Half my flight training has been with those instruments covered." ) Exactamundo. Head for the nearest Cat IIIC airport, tell the controller to get everyone out of your way, and hit the autoland. Then pray that nothing else goes wrong. If the pilots have been skipping their medicals, the plane probably doesn't have wheels, either. The odds are that the situation would never occur. Anything that can take out both pilots would likely not leave the plane in flyable condition. I might see both pilots having a stroke -- just before the Metaluna spaceship takes the plane aboard. (Oh, Hi, Exeter. How's your interociter? ) (I miss the MST3K holiday marathons.)
I think having both the captain and first officer unconscious is actually a possibility on a long flight. One scenario could be due to food contamination that they both ate or drank at the start of the flight. The intense level of food poisoning could be such that they passed out from it. Another possibility is they both stayed in the same hotel the prior night (on a multi-day assignment) and both got exposed to some: bad moonshine, drugs, air-borne illness, trampy women, etc., which caused them to pass out about 12 hours later. Probably the makings of a made-for-tv movie script in there somewhere. Also, you'd need a long runway to give the landing a try. Landing distance for a 747-100 is 1942m, about 6000 feet. And that is when a trained pilot does it. So, assuming a 50% sloppy factor, you'd need about 7500 feet. Dulles Airport (IAD) has 11,000 foot runways so you'd need a major airport like that to give it a try. Fitting a 7500 foot landing requirement into 11,000 feet of pavement would be harder than it sounds to do, I think.
About a year ago on a flight out of Houston ( Continental I believe) the flight attendant asked if there was a doctor on board . 5 minutes later, she asked if there was a pilot on board. The pilot had suffered a heart attack and did not survive. There was a single engine pilot on board who went up front and helped land. AOPA did an interesting article on it. Imagine being one of the passengers.
Seems like in a "real world" high "pucker factor" situation, you'd be pretty busy staying in level flight. Locating unfamiliar switches and gizmos might not be possible. With my old "Flight Simulator", I did successfully land a few times. Usually I'd just aim for the Sears Tower when I got tired of it.
Pretty impressive isnt it?? I have a friend that is an aircraft engineer for Qantas here in Australia and he has told me that before.
Actually anyone can land a 747... With the current auto pilot technology and avionics in the 747 it will land itself given the runway is clear... A normal passenger who could talk with the control tower could bring one down without a problem. The current drones are based on this same technology which has been in the 747 or 15+years.
Negative, I would argue that someone who knows nothing about aircraft could NOT land a 747 without killing everyone. EVEN with someone to talk them down, there's just too much to know. For example: a modern FMS/Autopilot is only as good as the plan you put into it. An automatic landing can only (legally) be accomplished into an airport with a certified Cat. 3 ILS system (IIRC, someone correct me, I don't work on the heavy stuff). This is only available in the largest centres. EVEN THEN, the person unfamiliar with the airframe would still have to set power levels and find/set the navs. There is just too much that needs to be set and managed for someone who is unfamiliar with aircraft to do. Hell I WORK with aircraft everyday, and I wouldn't want to take over one of our King Airs....much less a 747....
Again, someone familiar with the 747 in the tower could direct the average person to set the power/air speed, adjust the flaps, etc.. It's been done before by an average civilian with little experience/minimal experience. They didn't kill anyone... This isn't my opinion.. The FAA has documented cases where this has happened. BTW, 12/12/2007 issue of Mythbusters they did it.. Adam and the other dude both did with assistance from the tower....
I think that there's a fair chance that while you're explaining all that you might just use up the time it takes to get to the ground for that "average civilian".
I started looking on the web to see where I could get some 747 simulator time and I found this! WOWZERS, this guy spent $30K to biuld a custom simulator in his bedroom! The brief article is at http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/bedroom-747/man-builds-30000-jumbo-jet-simulator-in-his-bedroom-312735.php. Looks like he lost his wife over it too! Image Unavailable, Please Login
I'm an Aviation major and have about 100 hours, currently working on my IFR. Landing in real life is nothing like Flight Simulator for your PC and I think anyone without any real experience would crash and burn. There's just too many variables that come into play that you wouldn't know about unless you were an experienced Pilot; glide slope, speed, flaps, etc. Even If they did manage to set it down on the ground ok, would they even know how to reverse thrust and put the brakes on? Hint: It's not the middle button on the joystick.
Easy as pie. Glide slope; ask the computer do do it for you. Speed; the faster you go, the less chance of a stall and the cooler it will look on the news. Also if it's too fast, slide harmlessly across the grass at the end of the run way. Flaps; I remember hearing something about "full flaps" when landing from a movie I watched. Other than that, find the radio and ask the passengers to "place their seats in the full upright position and to reset their dining trays." I don't see where the problems could be. Oh, you stumped me here... Got it. Again where are the "potential problems?"
Lets put the scenario at 35K feet with ten hours of fuel. That would give the 'pilot' plenty of time to keep the plane level and listen to instructions from whoever will talk them down.
