COULD you land a passenger jet (if you ONLY hold a PPL)???

[anthonyw]

I was once fortunate enough to spend 4 hours on an A330 sim based in Stockport. It was a company perk as my boss also had a passion for flight.(That’s why he picked the flightsim) great call !

It was certainly a challenge, we started each flight on the deck and flew dozens of circuits so we could experience the phases of flight, we were allowed to do everything with assistance of the pilot advising where various knobs and switches were. I cheated a little by having the auto throttle left on for approach but that was it. We did elect to have the flight director turned off in an attempt to make it more difficult. I was looking at the diamonds on the localizer and Glidescope while trying to keep my head outside the cockpit as much as I could on the short finals. To keep us on our toes the weather worsened and we thrown a few emergencies. This is where my total appreciation became clear for real world pilots in staying professional and keeping a cool head. Being unfamiliar with the cockpit layout was a pain so with the help from the jump seat as I went through the checklist on the MFD a little voice would shout from the jump seat “above your head to the left” and so on. At that point I was the non PF.

As to the question by the poster in my very very limited experience I would say yes it can be done. We didn’t fluff any landings, maybe that was sheer luck but there were many but I did feel comfortable and in control, firm landing yes, hot brakes on the first attempt yes (trying to hold the flair to long while eating up valuable tarmac but no landing short or overruns.

But reality is a different beast, when flying the Sim I lacked fear, if it went wrong it didn’t matter if we crashed and burned and for me that is the big question. The fear factor and panic that can ensue can be difference between a landing you walk away from and one you don’t.

My only experience was 20hrs on a PA38 Tomajoke, 15yrs flying models and a few sessions on MSFS.


Now if it were a Boeing