"Is There a Pilot On Board?"

[Guest ZOTAN]

Before I begin, let me just say that this event never happened, and hopefully never will. Any similarities are coincidental. When you are finished reading the story please post your opinion. Ive read a few of these types of threads before and am wondering what the PMDG pilot thinks.----------You are waiting in line to check-in at San Diego for your flight to Baltimore. You are visiting your brother (or sister or mother...well you get the point) for 3 days over the July 4th weekend. You check-in, pass security, and take a seat at the gate. About 20 minutes before you board, N201LV pulls up to the gate. N201LV is a brand new 737-700 just delivered to Southwest a few weeks ago. Theres not a spec of dirt on the plane, and you can tell it is brand new. When its finally time to board, you proceed to the "A" group and are one of the first ones on the plane. You quickly grab the best seat you can, a window seat right behind the wing. 10 minutes pass, and you push from the gate. The engines start, and you are on your way.You spend 2 minutes taxing, and then line up on Runway 27. The engines get louder and you are rumbling down the runway. You think to yourself what a great job the pilots have. You imagine what they are saying right now: "V1, Rotate, V2". The plane lifts off, and you are on your way to Baltimore.About 2 hours in to the flight, the pilots up front are starting to get hungry. Due to regulations the pilots must eat different meals. Captain Carl pulls out a pack of dry roasted peantus, and First Officer Freddy grabs a pack of the honey roasted. They open the packs and chow down on what they think is a harmless meal.About 15 minutes later Captain Carl is starting to feel a bit sick. He dosent tell anyone, and passes out about 5 minutes later. First Officer Freddy now is getting a bit scared and calls the flight attendant to tell her of the situation. Right before he contacts ATC for vectors to the nearest airport, he feels some pains in his stomach. He looks down at his stomach, gets dizzy, and passes out.By now all the flight attendants know of the situation. They try to remain calm, but the passengers start to get anxious. You are about to press the call button, but one of the flight attendants makes an announcement."Um Lady's and Gentleman we have a slight problem up in the cockpit. Both of the pilots have passed out and no one is able to fly the plane. If we have any pilots on board, please press your call button now"You wait to see if anyone presses before you do anything. A minute passes, and another announcemnt is made. You start to sweat and think to yourself, "Can I land this plane?"----------Matt

[Guest Nickio]

I have dreamed this moment many many times. As much as I dont want it to happen, I must say, it would be quite interesting, and I am fairly confident that I can take control of the plane. I dont know if I can land that 737, but I can set it up for ILS :)

[Guest aarskringspier]

I fly a 15 pound monitor, actually three of them. I dont fly a 140 thousand pound hunk of aluminum. While I can land at will with my PMDG either by hand or ILS, I by no stretch of the imagination think I could land the real thing at all.But thats just me.

[Guest EDCS]

Sounds like an old hollywood movie. I remenber a film starring the acter "Trampas" from the Shilo Ranch , dont remenber the right name, landing a prop. Stefan

[Kosta 122]

I'm pretty sure that anyone, including me, who has been using PMDG the right way for a long time (and of course also knowing at least basic stuff, if not also advanved navigation stuff), could at least set up the aircraft for ILS landing, if not even manually land the aircraft.I'm sure though, that before attempting a landing, I would first take manual control of the aircraft when somewhere high in the air, say 12,000ft or so, only to scare the passengers... :-)

[Guest captain_dirk]

I have quite some PMDG experience now and took it with me on a real 737 simulator. Guess what, I did a decent job at almost every procedure of a flight, including manual landing. However, the simulator is a safe environment and doesn't get you as nervous as the real situation. In the real thing, I would probably suffer from a complete nervous collapse. So, I am not too confident I could land the thing safely.Dirk

[Guest EDCS]

A few weeks ago I make a 1 houer ride in a 737-800 full flight sim at Lufthansa fligt training center in Berlin Sch

[Guest]

Any one of us would get it down on the ground with no problem.After all, all you have to do for that is wait for the fuel to run out and/or disengage the autopilot.With luck some (maybe many) of us might get it down near or on an airport.I doubt more than a very few would be able to get it down safely without serious damage to the aircraft and/or its passengers/cargo.Would I try? If there were noone else on board more qualified what would I have to loose? It's 100% chance of death in a crash versus a few percent chance of survival after all.But I'd make darn sure I couldn't be held liable for damages and that I'd get a waiver from aviation authorities so I'd not get into massive legal trouble if by some remote chance I'd survive.Edit: at least in your scenario the aircraft itself is in perfect working order, quite contrary to the typical idea where the pilots are somehow killed by some terrible accident on the flightdeck, this makes the job for whomever takes the controls a lot easier.

[Guest EDCS]

Very well said.A german slogan is "Oben geblieben ist noch keiner, runter gekommen sind sie alle":-) I dont now the right english translation.GreetingsStefan

[Guest Diego Martinez]

I have dreamed of that quite often and do not have an idea it is possible or not. I have never flowon a real bird in my life nor a real simulator.But let me say that with all the stuff said by people who have compared the NG vs the real bird and said that is so much alike, I certainly feel confident to give it a try.I think that with ATC and ground radio help we may be able to push the right buttons and try an autoland CAT3. Sure it will be bumpy but as someone above said, 100% of death and x% chance of survival I will give it a try for sure.I will try for a pilot carrer in my next life or if I win the lottery and can retire nowDiego

[Guest vas_yan]

Ok, here goes a true story...A few months ago, I was on an A340 to Charles De Gaulle. This was a 3 hour flight. The plane was almost empty (I'd say about 70-80 souls on board) and I asked permission to visit the cockpit. To my surprise, the stewardess cam back and told me that I could visit once we had finished lunch.The pilots were very friendly and we had a short chat about the plane, but mostly we talked about other things. Paris, girlfriends, grilfriends in Paris... that sort of thing...They were a bit surprised that I knew some of their stuff (the captain even became suspicious at some point...). I am not going to bore you with all the details, suffice to say that it was an amazing experience.Now the good part was the landing...They were given a good approach path which allowed them to stay in select mode (like LNAV in the Boeings), until the capture of the localiser. So...the plane was at a 40 degree intercept course and the LOC was armed. Then the captain figured that perhaps the intercept was a bit steep so he goes to managed mode and makes a 10 degree turn to the airport. When you do that on the Bus it disarms the LOC intercept mode, apparently because it thinks you want to do something other than land. So we were going to shoot through the localiser beam...None of the two pilots realised that LOC was disarmed and they were just waiting for the capture. For a moment I contemplated on whether I should say something or just sit there and enjoy the go around but finally I whispered as softly as I could "localiser" to the captain. He turned and looked at me sharply then took a glance at his instruments and verified something was wrong, so he pushed the LOC button just in time for the big Bus to do the intercept!It goes without saying that the poor fellows were so embarassed after we landed that they made an utter mess of the parking directions they received (U turns and everything) and that I was more or less kicked out of the cockpit once parcking brakes were set...Having said all that, I believe that they were both excellent pilots, they went by the book (well mostly...), the F/O did a nice manual landing in crosswind and I wouldn't hesitate to travel with them again. The captain was one of these old dogs who had started his career at the 707 and went through the whole fleet of Boeings before switching to the A340s a couple of years ago.It also goes without saying that I had a big grin in my face for the few days that I spent in the french capital...and It wasn't just because of the red wine...Kind regards,

[Guest]

>Very well said.>>A german slogan is "Oben geblieben ist noch keiner, runter>gekommen sind sie alle":-) I dont now the right english>translation.>what goes up...

[Guest E.W.]

Hi,I hade the luck to fly on real 737/757/767/A320/340/C130/DC10 sims and I landed them all. Specialy the Airbuses are very easy with the autotrim and FBW.The only thing on the other AC's is the pressure on the flight controls but after 30 minutes hand flying you're used to it.Ones befor 9/11 (That time I used DF737 on MFS) I was flying from Brussels (EBBR) to Zakintos (LGZA)on jumpseat in a Virgin Express 734. On descent we received clearance for the VOR/DME approach for rwy34. The pilot who want to test my knowledge let my program the FMS for the approach. After he checked they let the airplane in VNAV and LNAV fly the approach (with procedure turn that I manualy entered) to the FAF where the pilot took over.I did a good job they said.THANK YOU FLIGHT SIMULATOR :-)Erik

[Guest GabrielR]

I guess a lucky diehard flight simmer would be the last option to take the controls... But If there is nobody else, I would.(Of course I would clear the weather, and Press P if anything goes terribly wrong... ahh and I will have any of the FAs turn Detect Crash Off before I step in the cockpit... Wait a minute, where is the P key in the real aircraft??????)

[Guest E.W.]

Yep, on the CDU :-)Erik