Could I fly a real Boeing 737-800?

[phawtrey 2]

Thought I'd add my two cents here - It's not quite about flying the real thing, or a 737, but I think it's as close as you can get without an ATP.

 

I have about a hundred hours of real time in a 172, but most of my time is in sims, and usually smaller planes; I recently managed to book a couple of hours  in a full motion Level-D 767-300 sim, so in preparation, purchased a copy of Level-D's 767 sim and managed to get it running in P3D; the graphics are a little outdated but for the most part, all of the components are there - enough to familiarize myself the with flight deck and handling characteristics.

 

I spend a few hours doing circuits, ILS approaches and landings in various wind and visibility conditions (nothing extreme) just to get the procedures down and to get a handle on things like timing and power settings, etc.

 

During the briefing for the Level-D flight, the instructor indicated that I would probably crash, and not to be surprised if he had to freeze the sim at any point (full motion sims get get pretty rough!)

 

My copilot for this flight (we switched back and forth on roles) had no real flying experience, but a fair bit of flight sim experience; I thought I'd have an advantage having some real flight time, but it turns out it only made me more aware of hitting and holding my altitudes.

 

When we actually did the flights, both of us managed to do the take-off, climb to 3000 in the circuit, intercept the ILS and land without "breaking" the plane; the landings  would have been a little hard and passengers would have commented (we assumed we were flying a cargo plane) but they were within limits so nothing would have busted. Some of the flights were even in mild turbulence and with reduced visibility.

 

As for taxiing, in a full motion sim, you get a really good feel for how much you're braking and turning, so it actually isn't that hard - turning is easy since you use a tiller - you just have to remember that you're sitting way in front of the front wheel and you're in a long plane when you make the turns (stay off the grass!) Also, the instructor warned us to be easy on the brakes - they are sensitive, but still require quite a bit of force.

 

So I think is is possible to go from sim experience to fly the real thing, but of course, there's lots of conditions attached; in our case, there was no cross-wind and we flew at dusk so the runway lights were easy to spot  - this meant that we could switch to visual and use the PAPI lighting as a guide; we didn't have to worry about most of the systems - we started with the plane powered up and ready to go, including having the ILS tuned in; we hand flew the plane, so we didn't worry about the FMC or autopilot, just the basics including flaps and gear; the instructor gave a few pointers along the way - something someone could do over the radio - but never had to intervene or pause the sim.

 

It's actually quite amazing how close some of these sims get to the real thing; yes, a real plane (and a level-d sim) feel different when you're at the controls - the yoke is much heavier and has a much greater range of motion, the "monitor" is a LOT bigger and there's a lot more to take in, but the response to control inputs, power settings, etc. are all very close.

 

Oh, and if anyone wants to know, was it worth the big bucks? Every penny!

[z06z33 763]

Hey, 

 

I am (sort of) able to fly the PMDG 737 NGX. If I would learn that airplane in much more detail, could I (in theory) fly a real Boeing 737? I was thinking that because of the incredible amount of realism and the co-operation with Boeing themselves for the PMDG. Of course, I'm not trained to fly in specific situations and maybe I would get an heartattack if some of the warning lights went on in reallife, but by knowing the cockpit and what everything is doing, it should be possible to at least start, taxi and depart a real airplane, shouldn't it? 

Have you ever flow a plane in real life? If not then unless you knew  how to set up the autoland system, you'd be a smoking hole in the ground. I have a good bit of real world flight time complex. high performance singles and light twins but I doubt I could grease a 737 on,I'd get it down but I'm sure it'd be a hard landing with some damage. It'd be a lot going from GA twins to a 737 let alone, having never flown a plane before. The best chance would be if there was a GA pilot on board and an avid simmer, the pilot to fly the plane and the simmer to run the systems.

[OmniAtlas 93]

Can a kid land an airliner? 

 

[mfourn20 0]

After hundreds of hours in flightsim I met with a pilot. He let me fly an entire flight from taxi to landing while he handled the communications. This was in a Piper Archer

 

I did everything from taxing the plane, to the run up, takeoff, climb, cruise, and pattern+landing. I nailed everything all with zero in plane experience. The sim made me feel very familiar with the aircraft and I knew exactly what to do. I actually found real flying to be much easier than in the sim because of all the extra sensory input..feeling the aircraft move and being able to freely look around made all the difference...and oh the framerates were soo smooth. Granted this was nice weather, and just a Piper Archer.

 

I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to driving things though. Driving machines just comes naturally to me. I watched a couple youtube videos on how to drive a car with a manual trans. Then I went out and bought one and drove it home with no issues.

[N2056 33]

The best thing about the internet is that anybody can do anything!

When you get in that 737-800 to demonstrate your flying prowess do me a favor and let me know in advance so that I can be somewhere else.

[red259 31]

I figure (assuming you learn every single detail of the 737 inside and out via the simulation and can do it in your sleep) you may be able to setup a cat 3 auto landing and get the plane down safely if its ideal conditions and everything is done via autoland. Of course if something goes wrong and autopilot is not available then I think that would be pretty much it, because a manual landing would require knowing the feel of the plane and how the plane will react. There is no way you can know that from a home simulator and would only come from significant amount of actual flight training. 

[MachTwo 386]

You'd be surprised how much 'simming' can help teach you some of the fundamentals of flying - especially instrument scans. I remember sitting the assessments for my position on an ATPL course with an airline. One of the exercises was to fly some very basic procedures (changing heading, altitude etc.) in a simulator whilst the instructor fired mathematical questions at the candidates. Maths was never my strong point at school - I had to work hard at it to get the grades, but I found flying the sim second nature thanks to years on MSFS. I was able to give most of my attention to these questions whilst flying the sim - a skill you'll need as an airline pilot for those bad days in the office. 

 

That said, flying an aircraft is just like anything else - like maths, for example; there are people who are naturals and others who have to work hard at it. I've flown with some fantastic pilots, and some others who were, well, not so fantastic. Would you be able to fly a real B737NG with some sim training first? Possibly - but you'd probably benefit more from a solid understanding of the fundamentals of flight rather than, say, a few hundred hours with the NGX in MSFS. You'll often find those who do gliding make fantastic airline pilots for this very reason.

[UK_Squiff 1]

I consider myself a reasonably capable simmer...but I went on a 737 simulator with my Brother, (who's also pretty good) and we asked the instructor if we could have a scenario where the pilot was incapacitated...so we could take over the aircraft and fly it, land it.

 

Forget it!!!!!!!

 

After about 10 minutes of the two of us f******* everything up..he had to take back control

[OmniAtlas 93]

I do okay on my desktop. I still sucked at flying at a home cockpit simulator -- it felt very 'heavy' 

 

[Guest]

 

 

You'll often find those who do gliding make fantastic airline pilots for this very reason.

 

There I told you all I could fly anything!

[WebMaximus 372]

Many years ago I had the chance to do a flight in a full-motion 737-700 sim at SAS Flight Academy and I actaully did really good and even impressed the instructor with both my general knowledge about the a/c as well as my system and flying skills so...saying you could never fly with only sim experience in your baggage is not fully true I would say.

 

Then of course there's lots more to it flying a real a/c but surely you would be much better off vs people who never "flew" an aircraft simulated or not.

[bjohnsonmn 0]

I'll add one comment about taxiing.  If you want to see something funny, watch a private pilot student on their first taxi under their own control... you'd think they were drunk!

[vololiberista 205]

I figure (assuming you learn every single detail of the 737 inside and out via the simulation and can do it in your sleep) you may be able to setup a cat 3 auto landing and get the plane down safely if its ideal conditions and everything is done via autoland. Of course if something goes wrong and autopilot is not available then I think that would be pretty much it, because a manual landing would require knowing the feel of the plane and how the plane will react. There is no way you can know that from a home simulator and would only come from significant amount of actual flight training. 

You see, somebody who is a pilot wouldn't do that. They would ask for a diversion airfield. And, would (if unfamiliar with the systems) fly without the aid of the FMC.

Being able to programme an FMC unfortunately does not mean you can "fly"!

[red259 31]

You see, somebody who is a pilot wouldn't do that. They would ask for a diversion airfield. And, would (if unfamiliar with the systems) fly without the aid of the FMC.

Being able to programme an FMC unfortunately does not mean you can "fly"!

 

Well the whole question of the OP was if someone isn't a pilot, but learned from the simulator what they could in theory do. I wouldn't say being able to program the FMC is the same as being able to fly. My comment actually specifically states that I doubt someone could land the plane manually from just home simulator experience and that the only chance would be via an autoland in ideal circumstances. 

 

[WebMaximus 372]

Looking at the girl in this clip I wouldn't say she exactly makes for a good example picturing the average NGX driver in here.