fsx-ms If I manage to master high-end add-on planes, would I be able to fly them in real world?

[vololiberista 205]

This would be the real scenario. You put your hand up saying that you have flown FS9, FSX and P3D or XPL. The cabin crew dump you in the cockpit and shut the door (in reality most airlines will expect the chief steward to monitor).

So you are dumped into the cockpit the door is shut behind you.

So what do you do next?

Where are we?

With whom are we in contact?

Declare a Mayday.

Then start to familiarise yourself with the cockpit layout.

Briefly disconnect the AP and familiarise yourself with how the aircraft reacts to the controls

Follow ATC instructions (as their initial reaction would be that you are a potential hijacker)

You don't really need to know precise speeds closer to the ground

because if the aircraft feels sloppy you are too slow.

If you do get to the approach phase safely prepare the aircraft well in advance

get it configured for landing. This leaves you more time to concentrate.

Don't worry about noise abatement etc as that doesn't apply to a Mayday.

Never ever ever in a jet eircraft reduce the engines to idle thrust on final approach because if you make a hash of it you have no power to to climb out.

Make absolutely sure that the runway is the longest possible runway available.

In most case you will be able to fly the aircraft onto the ground. In fact for a simmer this is the best option

as most simmers over flare which in real life could cause the aircraft to float down the runway.

Once on the ground and the aircraft is responding to your brakes you can start to breath

and ask someone in the control tower to put the kettle on.

[ErichB 3,643]

his would be the real scenario. You put your hand up saying that you have flown FS9, FSX and P3D or XPL. The cabin crew dump you in the cockpit and shut the door (in reality most airlines will expect the chief steward to monitor).

So you are dumped into the cockpit the door is shut behind you.

So what do you do next?

Where are we?

With whom are we in contact?

Declare a Mayday.

Then start to familiarise yourself with the cockpit layout.

Briefly disconnect the AP and familiarise yourself with how the aircraft reacts to the controls

Follow ATC instructions (as their initial reaction would be that you are a potential hijacker)

You don't really need to know precise speeds closer to the ground

because if the aircraft feels sloppy you are too slow.

If you do get to the approach phase safely prepare the aircraft well in advance

get it configured for landing. This leaves you more time to concentrate.

Don't worry about noise abatement etc as that doesn't apply to a Mayday.

Never ever ever in a jet eircraft reduce the engines to idle thrust on final approach because if you make a hash of it you have no power to to climb out.

Make absolutely sure that the runway is the longest possible runway available.

In most case you will be able to fly the aircraft onto the ground. In fact for a simmer this is the best option

as most simmers over flare which in real life could cause the aircraft to float down the runway.

Once on the ground and the aircraft is responding to your brakes you can start to breath

and ask someone in the control tower to put the kettle on.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy :smile:

[james_2k 36]

Tea and medals all around!

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

It's been on the internet for ages.  
http://www.wikihow.com/Land-an-Airplane-in-an-Emergency
 
Key phrase from the "article":
"Finally, all those days of joystick video games are about to pay off!"  

[charliearon 3,024]

Just having a thought about making it slightly easier on the "would-be" pilot......Would it be wise to use Auto-brakes

( 737 or larger aircraft)  maybe set to the first position to help with the braking or is this really asking for trouble?

[vololiberista 205]

Just having a thought about making it slightly easier on the "would-be" pilot......Would it be wise to use Auto-brakes

( 737 or larger aircraft)  maybe set to the first position to help with the braking or is this really asking for trouble?

You need to set them for runway conditions and length plus aircraft weight. If you overdo them you risk bursting the tyres. If you underdo them then of course you risk going off the end of the runway.

[SpiritFlyer 987]

Hello everybody,

 

I'm planning on getting a flying licence in the future and I'm just wondering...

 

We understand!

 

Hello everybody,

 

If I master planes like PMDG 737, 777 or A2A C172 etc., will I be able to fly the actual plane in the real world?

 

Sincerely,

Tomas Pokorny

 

This was/is the question in the back of every simmers mind from day one, including mine decades ago with stick airplanes on an Apple 2e.

 

Would landing a Cessna between two parallel lines on a 10 inch screen enable me to fly a real airplane in the real world?

 

Who knows? No one would let me find out!

 

 

The same question will be in the mind of every simmer with the next generation of simulation hardware and virtual reality software.

 

 

Would mastering the simulated systems and controls of a complex aircraft enable you to fly the actual plane in the real world?

 

Who knows? There will still be no way anyone is going to let you find out!

 

 

Having said that I can only relate one single relevant instance in my life.

 

After many thousands of hours in desk top simulators, I did fly the real thing (small plane) under the command of a real pilot. I found the real aircraft felt familiar, and easy to fly, turn, climb and descend using standard operating procedures easy and nearly as natural as driving my own vehicle on a very bumpy windy road (lots of turbulence). The controls and 3D orientations felt comfortable, as the real deal was very much like the simulated versions with no surprises or drama.

 

Would I feel confident to take off and land (which I did not)? Certainly!

 

Yes, you are right! I may be a fool, but certainly I am confident I could do it if I needed to (for all the imaginary reasons), although I would definitely want to have a real pilot there to take over if we were about to die!

 

That's my story and I am sticking to it!

 

Kind regards,

 

Footnote: Fear is a furious enemy. If 'fear' within a real world scenario overcame 'confidence' that resulted in panic or paralysis, then all would come to naught rather quickly. I can't help to think that mastery over oneself would be job one.

[ClearedtoLand 149]

We may not all have agreed on the same points but you sure win the prize for respect and decency.

I don't really want to carry on contributing to keeping this thread going, but I just want to acknowledge your kind words. I don't think I covered myself in glory, though, I'm not used to be spoken to in the way Ken did here. Still, if one is going to throw one's principles out the window, doing so because someone didn't mince their words is probably not up there with the best of justifications.

 

All the same, I found it a fascinating discussion, thanks to all for their contributions, and apologies to any I offended.

[iwebber 207]

This would be the real scenario.

You put your hand up saying that you have flown FS9, FSX and P3D or XPL. The cabin crew dump you in the cockpit and shut the door (in reality most airlines will expect the chief steward to monitor).

So you are dumped into the cockpit the door is shut behind you.

So what do you do next?

This is not a real scenario, if there were no qualified pilots on board the crew would handle it.

If you stood up and declared proficiency in FSX (or whatever) they will not know what that means (and if they do, this will be their turn to try their luck at flying, not yours) you won't get a look in. There will also be legitimate security concerns so they will be very reluctant to allow any non crew members onto the flight deck.

 

If by some peculiarity of fate it does happen they would not put the chief steward in there with you, the crew will be flat out preparing the cabin for an emergency landing, they wouldn't waste someone (who won't know what you're doing anyway so what on earth can they monitor - and if they do, they'd be the ones flying, not you) to sit with you. They might allow someone else to be there, in our incapacitation drills the cabin crew come in to remove the 'dead' pilot from his seat (or at least secure him from the controls) and one may stay to read checklists or just provide some human contact in a very stressful time, our call (I never do).

 

Assuming this happens on your average 737/747/757/767/777/787/A318/19/20/21/30/40/50/80 sort of aircraft…

 

Where are we?

With whom are we in contact?

Declare a Mayday.

Then start to familiarise yourself with the cockpit layout.

Briefly disconnect the AP and familiarise yourself with how the aircraft reacts to the controls

Follow ATC instructions (as their initial reaction would be that you are a potential hijacker)

The first two are irrelevant, don't declare a mayday or play at being a pilot, if ATC hear a semi professional voice taking over an aircraft they will assume hijacking and you'll struggle to get them on side, you'll be joined by a fighter aircraft on your left hand side and, unbeknown to you, they'll be a guy behind with a missile lock, one false move and you're all toast.

 

Your best bet (and this is what we tell our crew to do in just this situation) is to put a headset on, pull a 'trigger' button on the control column/stick and speak slowly in English and say what's happened.

 

"Please help, I'm on flight XX123 from XXX to YYY and the pilots have both passed out. I don't know how to fly an aircraft, can you help me", then let go of the button.

 

They may ask you to repeat (this doesn't happen very often) and there may well be some pauses as they try to get people's attention in the control room but they will help, they will get someone who knows the aircraft to transfer you to another frequency and they will talk you through everything. You will not 'fly' the plane. They will talk you through setting it up for an autoland and then bring it to a halt on the runway. Then someone will board the aircraft and take over.

 

Under no circumstances should you disconnect the AP (briefly or otherwise).

 

You don't really need to know precise speeds closer to the ground

because if the aircraft feels sloppy you are too slow.

If you do get to the approach phase safely prepare the aircraft well in advance

get it configured for landing. This leaves you more time to concentrate.

Don't worry about noise abatement etc as that doesn't apply to a Mayday.

Never ever ever in a jet eircraft reduce the engines to idle thrust on final approach because if you make a hash of it you have no power to to climb out.

You do need to know the speeds (and with zero hours experience how will you know when the controls are 'sloppy', what if it's FBW and you can't tell?) but they will talk you through all that. The autothrottle will be in for the entire flight so don't worry about thrust settings at any point (below 1000ft (in my airline) you're right, idle thrust suggests the approach is unstable so around you go but up to that point it's quite common to have idle), you may need to close the thrust levers on touchdown but that will be it.

 

You will use autobrakes, you can’t burst tires using autobrakes as, by definition (at least on the types I've flown), if the autobrakes work, the antiskid works. They will tell you where the autobrake switch is and what to set it to (they will worry about aircraft weight and runway length/conditions).

 

Make absolutely sure that the runway is the longest possible runway available.

In most case you will be able to fly the aircraft onto the ground. In fact for a simmer this is the best option

as most simmers over flare which in real life could cause the aircraft to float down the runway.

Once on the ground and the aircraft is responding to your brakes you can start to breath

and ask someone in the control tower to put the kettle on.

You will land on the runway (indeed at the airport) they tell you to (they're unlikely to send you to a major airport), you are not a pilot in command, you are a conduit to action someone else's decisions, you will not be accountable for anything that happens if you do as you are told. If you don't, they'll throw the book at you.

 

You do not need to worry about flaring or braking, under no circumstances should you try and fly the aircraft. The autobrakes will drop out at a few knots and they would probably tell you to put the parking brake on which, depending on type, would be smooth or jerky. They may ask you to shut the engines down too and tell the cabin to disarm the doors. Then they will board the aircraft and take over.

 

You will need something stronger than a cup of tea after this ordeal and you will be owing your life to everyone on the ground who helped.

 

I don't want to sound too negative about this but it won't happen.

If it did, your knowledge and experience with FS would help from a systems point of view (which would help when they're trying to get you to do things) but your knowledge and ability to actually fly it would be non existent.

 

I suspect most of you would be able to do it, simply knowing most of the acronyms and knowing roughly where some of the switches are and what they do would really help the people you talk to on the ground. Having said that, just do as you are told, they will want to make sure the aircraft is set up right and they will probably ask you the same questions again and again to make sure everything's been done right. However, and I cannot stress this more vehemently - DO NOT FLY THE AIRCRAFT - it's nothing like FS, your entire frame of reference is off and it will all end in tears. The full on Level D sims they use for our recency and conversion sims don't quite fly the same as the real aircraft and they're multi million dollar bits of kit, I'm afraid our desktop computer(s) with assorted monitors and input paraphernalia are giving you (what's referred to as) negative training, with no time flying the real aircraft you won't be able to do it well enough to pull off a landing first time (and walk away from it).

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting you're all bad pilots or unable to learn, it's just that right now, you haven’t had enough relevant experience on type to pull off any kind of manual flying.

 

Sorry to pick on vololiberista's post, nothing personal, you just brought up most of the points I wanted to mention ever since I saw this thread and decided not to reply...

 

ATB

 

Ian

[HighBypass 2,339]

Thanks for your comprehensive input Ian.

[ErichB 3,643]

Great stuff Ian

[N400QW 205]

And, that's a wrap... :hi:

[skelsey 765]

A friend of mine just forwarded me this video (entirely independently of this discussion).

 

Not quite an airliner (though a King Air is certainly no tin can) but... several very cool customers here.

 

First eight and a half minutes or so.

 

[BlueStar 323]

 

 

Your best bet (and this is what we tell our crew to do in just this situation) is to put a headset on, pull a 'trigger' button on the control column/stick and speak slowly in English and say what's happened

 

Hopefully the "trigger" they pull is not the A/P disconnect or moves the trim which disconnects the A/P which leads to another problem of getting it back in trim so the A/P can be reconnected.  :smile:

 

blaustern

[ryanb1986 5]

It's no walk in the park, and would require, I think, some careful and diligent study outside of the sim as well -- but yes, it can be done. How can I be so sure? Because it has been done.

 

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJT_CACIZqs. What happens here is damned impressive.