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Comment by mcargian | Hacker News Reader

There was a bet on another forum. Could someone with only flight simulator experience take off, fly the pattern and land a single engine plane on their first try. I won't spoil it for you, read the thread here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/34/other-other-topics/prop...

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here's the "trip report" for that one: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/34/other-other-topics/prop...

Thank you, I was skimming through a lot of posts to find that.

And here is the video:

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

The trip report will spoil the outcome, so the video is somewhat more nerve-wrecking.

I was thinking something more in line with this Fry & Laurie sketch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klZ2suVUL7Q

Also the trip report from the pilot : http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=36010398...

(the parent is the trip report from the flight instructor)

Very interesting to see his change of perspective and thought process during the flight, especially :

My confidence level was extremely high prior to the flight, as in I really thought I was a pick 'em to do this, as in even money. 5 to 1, 20 to 1, 100 to 1?? No effing way; I was sure I had a really good chance at success.

(...)

There is really no other way to describe what happened next: I panicked. I did quickly bank the plane right to get it back over the runway, and this was pure habit from the simulator, which mimicked this part of the flight perfectly. But in the immediate seconds after take off, the first thing I thought was, I can't do this. (...) But the nose kept generally pointed forward, and the plane kept its general climb attitude, and I settled down. That is, I settled down from a state of total terror, to just general major concern.

Sounds like anxiety was the main problem. Drugs may have helped.

It's funny the first thing I thought in my mind was "right rudder, more right rudder!". That's the first big difference I remembered. The plane reacts to torque with incredible quickness. Then you realize that the air is not the calm environment you imagined and is actually a sea of air with "waves" coming from any direction. I'd say x-plane comes the closest to simulating this rapidly changing environment. You really have to be on your toes.

One more data point: I was luck enough to go up with an RAF pilot having never flown before (nor in simulators). He allowed me to attempt to land, with instruction. I got close, but he used his controls at the end. I was having trouble correcting for a slight cross wind. By contrast, I did unassisted loop-the-loops (2g, then 4g), and a barrel role. So my $0.02 - landing not so easy..

Here's Steve's (the Delta pilot from the 2+2) post on FlyerTalk.com where he answers questions, too. Fascinating.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1035853-ask-de...

There's an aviation academy that posts various videos of their A320 and 737 simulators, and doing different things in them. Including this one, where they talk someone with no experience (playing the role of flight attendant with an incapacitated pilot) through landing the A320:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkOT3fbc1O4

And one for the 737:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7WMQUDGDD4

(there are some other fun videos in there, like making a water landing, recovering from an engine failure, etc., that I find fascinating just for the sheer number of things that A) have been thought about and B) have had procedures actually decided on and written down in checklists)

That was great, thanks for the links. I had no idea an ILS landing could be that easy to setup. The A320 seemed easy even, the guy even manufactured an autopilot failure on final approach to make the video less boring. At that point the fact that the "flight attendant" could fly the plane wasn't very realistic as she had gotten no information about what the joystick and thrust levers actually did.

There are some tradeoffs in that video, of course. It's simulated under basically ideal circumstances -- daytime, clear weather, suitable airport nearby, etc. -- so that it can be kept as simple as possible, mostly just calling out values to input and letting the autopilot and ILS do their thing. But still a pretty impressive demo of what can be done if all else fails.

A few water crashes and people start jotting down ideas for next time.

I'm sorry these videos are joke and not realistic at all. The instructor is sitting behind her looking at what she is doing and it also helps him describe what she should do. If he was turned around and looking at the wall it would be a bit more realistic. All that said I doubt most people would even figure out how to speak to atc.

The cool thing is, with everyone carrying a labtop these days, it might be possible to train on an emulator on the plane before attempting the landing. Must remember to install a flight simulator before I fly the next time...

And here's a video -- not sure if its the same person.

http://youtu.be/jJT_CACIZqs

How about the 14 year old kid who stole the sesna and landed it successfully (after landing successfully he took off again and hard landed it - oops). http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159848,00.html

They did in the movie Battlefield Earth lol

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