<story><title>Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated</title><url>https://www.cbsnews.com/news/passenger-lands-plane-palm-beach-airport-pilot-medical-emergency/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hgomersall</author><text>Genuine question, is my experience playing Microsoft flight simulator any use in being able to answer those questions, because it certainly feels like I can say something sensible about them.</text></item><item><author>whimsicalism</author><text>Listening to the audio of the conversation, it doesn&amp;#x27;t seem like the passenger has no flying experience...&lt;p&gt;At minimum they must have spent significant time around aviation or be ex-military.&lt;p&gt;e: From another comment on Reddit&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Examples:
&amp;gt; The passenger knew what button to press on the yoke to transmit to ATC.
&amp;gt; The passenger knew aviation phraseology and phonetics “333 Lima Delta”.
&amp;gt; The passenger knew where the altimeter was and his altitude “I’m maintaining 9100 feet”
&amp;gt; Passenger was able to identify the transponder and enter a squawk code.
&amp;gt; Passenger knew what the vertical speed indicator was “I’m descending right now at 550 feet a minute passing 8640 feet”.
&amp;gt; My wife, who flies with me regularly, might get one or two of those items, but probably couldn&amp;#x27;t point out the transponder, much less enter a squawk code without instructions.</text></item><item><author>civil_engineer</author><text>Pilot here. I&amp;#x27;m floored that a person with no flying experience could put this airplane down without a scratch.&lt;p&gt;Air traffic controllers are not necessarily pilots, but luckily, this one was a pilot and certified instructor. ATC and passenger worked through a stressful situation to produce an amazing outcome. Bravo!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kenrik</author><text>Pilot here: It could help with some familiarity but generally in MSFS you can get away with ignoring the gauges and just mess around. The tutorial might gloss over some of it.&lt;p&gt;Having an unbelievable number of hours in MSFS when I was a kid ... landing a real plane is considerably harder and a ton of instruction time is just focused on getting you to land reliably. I finished my PPL in just over 40hrs which is close to the minimum. Most people will fall into the 60-100hr pool.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m dubious that this passenger really had zero experience it takes a good 6-10hrs to get decent at landing (as in not bending metal).&lt;p&gt;MSFS does however offer a reasonable feeling for the cruise portion of a flight.</text></comment>
<story><title>Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated</title><url>https://www.cbsnews.com/news/passenger-lands-plane-palm-beach-airport-pilot-medical-emergency/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hgomersall</author><text>Genuine question, is my experience playing Microsoft flight simulator any use in being able to answer those questions, because it certainly feels like I can say something sensible about them.</text></item><item><author>whimsicalism</author><text>Listening to the audio of the conversation, it doesn&amp;#x27;t seem like the passenger has no flying experience...&lt;p&gt;At minimum they must have spent significant time around aviation or be ex-military.&lt;p&gt;e: From another comment on Reddit&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Examples:
&amp;gt; The passenger knew what button to press on the yoke to transmit to ATC.
&amp;gt; The passenger knew aviation phraseology and phonetics “333 Lima Delta”.
&amp;gt; The passenger knew where the altimeter was and his altitude “I’m maintaining 9100 feet”
&amp;gt; Passenger was able to identify the transponder and enter a squawk code.
&amp;gt; Passenger knew what the vertical speed indicator was “I’m descending right now at 550 feet a minute passing 8640 feet”.
&amp;gt; My wife, who flies with me regularly, might get one or two of those items, but probably couldn&amp;#x27;t point out the transponder, much less enter a squawk code without instructions.</text></item><item><author>civil_engineer</author><text>Pilot here. I&amp;#x27;m floored that a person with no flying experience could put this airplane down without a scratch.&lt;p&gt;Air traffic controllers are not necessarily pilots, but luckily, this one was a pilot and certified instructor. ATC and passenger worked through a stressful situation to produce an amazing outcome. Bravo!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>runjake</author><text>FWIW, I grew up playing 80s&amp;#x2F;90s flight sims and later went into the military and worked on planes and got the opportunity to use military flight simulators and was able to make my way around the cockpit and takeoff&amp;#x2F;land pretty much immediately.&lt;p&gt;I think my key for landing was learning flaps and throttle and getting a feel for stall speeds in sims.&lt;p&gt;Now, would I want to test that in an actual plane in a life and death emergency? Not really. But I&amp;#x27;d wager my odds are good.</text></comment>