On many control yokes, the mic switch is dangerously close to the one that disengages the autopilot. (It can be assumed that the autopilot’s engaged, as you aren’t dead yet.)
When the autopilot is disengaged, the aircraft will tell you – loudly. It’s meant to alarm you; that’s why it’s called an alarm.
If for some reason you engage the radio and get nothing but static, the frequency you want is 121.500 MHz. That’s the international air distress frequency.
FAA and Canadian visual flight regulations dictate that aircraft should have a minimum of thirty minutes reserve fuel, on top of that necessary to get from A to B. For night VFR, it’s 45 minutes. So you should have some time to burn (literally) before you need to get down.
Firstly – unless your plane has pontoons on the bottom of it, it’s not a water landing. IT’S A CRASH.
Secondly – I’ve never bought into the idea of using my seat cushion as a flotation device. The idea of hugging the collective asses of every passenger before me is worse than drowning.
Been flying gaming simulators since Space Shuttle on Atari. I have always wanted a crack at a commercial simulator to see how I would do. I also feel like I would have a decent chance in the real thing, but of course I would be too embarrassed to ever admit that face to face with a RL pilot, I know they do not share my enthusiasm.
How come they make the easy part of flying easier (staying in the air) and the hard part of flying is pretty much the same as it’s always been (slow down but not too much and wiggle all this other shit at specific times and hope you are actually pointed at the runway)?
I’ve played a handful of flight sims, and even on the ones with guidance systems getting lined up with the smooth part of the airport is by far the hardest part if you have to make any corrections.
The newer jets actually have that actually. (at least if I remember what I have heard from stuff, god you think I should know considering where I work)
I’ve wondered the same thing for pretty much the same reason. My uneducated guess as to why autopilot flight arrived so far ahead of autopilot landing is that the stakes are a lot…ahem…higher. I mean, if the altitude is off by 20 meters half a kilometer above the ground, it probably won’t be an unrecoverable error. If it’s off 20 meters on the runway, a couple hundred people could die a fiery death.
Yes, it’s true that most jetliners are certified for automatic landings, called “autolands” in pilot-speak. But in practice they are rare. Fewer than 1 percent of landings are performed automatically, and the fine print of setting up and managing one of these landings is something I could talk about all day. If it were as easy as pressing a button, I wouldn’t need to practice them twice a year in the simulator or periodically review those tabbed, highlighted pages in my manuals. In a lot of respects, automatic landings are more work-intensive than those performed by hand. The technology is there if you need it for that foggy arrival in Buenos Aires with the visibility sitting at zero, but it’s anything but simple.
Leave an aircraft in flight, without a parachute? Or better yet, ENTER an aircraft in flight. So if you want to board a plane while it is in mid-air, and you had a parachute with you, the ten day notice is unnecessary?
The first commercial aircraft to perform a fully automated landing (that is, no human control of the aircraft until it comes to a complete stop on the runway) was a British jet - the Hawker Siddeley Trident (think of a slightly smaller 727). The Autoland system was developed largely for British European Airways, because in the polluted 1960s smog would completely close London for days at a time. “Autoland” is now referred to as a Category IIIc landing (after the beacon equipment that must be installed on the runway).
Autoland capability wasn’t/isn’t a big priority for American carriers. There are a number of reasons. We have far more runways to equip with the expensive beacons required for fully automatic landings. We also have plenty of airports with plenty of space between them, so you are much more likely to have a reasonable diversion airport if conditions deteriorate rapidly. Finally, we have so many planes in the sky at a time, just think of the cost of maintaining all those runways, planes and pilots, keeping everything certified at all times.
Some airlines (I believe Alaska, my favorite airline, is one of them) don’t equip their planes for autopilot Cat III, instead choosing a HUD based system that projects an image of the runway as “seen” through the weather. That is used for guidance until the point where the runway must be in sight for a landing.
Boeing pilot here. That’s all pretty possible all the way up until the only thing that really matters… turning off the autopilot and landing. Just too many ways to really and completely screw it up and only a few ways to get it right especially in a larger jet. Trim, airspeed management, descent rate, crosswind correction (which can change significantly with altitude)… being a bit off in any one is fixable if you know what you’re doing, but also can easily and quickly result in an unstabilized condition that can get harder and harder to recover from the longer it goes (think “galloping gertie” for a not quite accurate but illustrative example). As for autolands, they’re possible only at some airports and under some conditions, and with some aircraft types, and conducting one is also a fairly lengthy and precise process. That’s probably the only realistic solution if fuel were sufficient to get to one of those airports, there was time to review procedures and a million other stars aligned.
Even as a student pilot in a Cessna, you may take off under instruction your very first time - that can be straightforward - but the landings take a good bit of practice. Could someone with zero experience pull off a successful landing as per the video? I’d say zero chance. Could someone with some basic flying skills, prefect conditions, adequate fuel to review everything, and one of the longest widest runways in the nation pull this off? I’d say it would be a coin flip but there’d be at least a chance of success and hopefully survivors.
I remember watching footage of an old Trident, where the pilot sat turned around in his seat, talking to the camera as the plane landed itself. But 40-50 years later I believe that an ILS landing still assumes a clear day, no wind shears etc.
Great comment. That is what I was figuring all around. On top of that, someone untrained (private pilot or not) would need the calmest of nerves (aka balls of steel) to maintain the mental composure to even have a remote shot at it. I’ve flown only gliders and talking someone through that would be a tall order and all you’ve got is the stick and rudder. And air breaks. Even that is too many things for someone untrained to handle.
Regarding #5. Fuel reserves are calculated based on a clean aircraft, sometimes at altitude, where burn rate is significantly lower. Once you drop gear and flaps you had better plan to land soon as your fuel burn rate may more than double.
You’re probably looking for the 757 and up–the 737, in case of emergency, should simply be flown directly into the ground.
EDIT:
And, for the sake of the maintainers, make sure your airspeed, when dropping all those lovely implements, is low enough that those implements aren’t ripped from the A/C (not really the gear, but mosdef for flaps).
