hero at 30000ft

[pilotho]

Not sure if this is the right forum but I think this is of interest to professional pilots. Joe public is going to be hypnotised to land a 737 apparently.

Derren Brown: Hero at 30,000 Feet | Television & radio | guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/sep/06/derren-brown-hero-feet)

If this guy pull this off, I am going to ask for a refund from my flight training school and giving it to DB.

[DB6]

Spot Pikey O'Leary's next publicity stunt!

[plasticAF]

try someone elses

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

They don't know what bilge to put on the idiot-lantern next.

[CloudSurferUK]

Jet 2 737 from EGNM... hmmm, sensing a DB con here, civvy landing solo? just cant happen outside a genuine emerg.

[purplehelmet]

wonder how much jet2 are getting for this,or if its just free publicity?

[CloudSurferUK]

oh im sure Channex are getting a pretty penny from C4 for this.

[Nearly There]

Ive only stayed watching for this bit..

[mocoman]

Don't even start....

What a load of tosh.

[autothrottle]

What a load of nonsense

[tom_ace]

i think jet2 have now hired him after that landing!

[bank_angle]

Absolutely shocking. How gullible does Derren Brown think some people are? :ugh:

[Tandemrotor]

Absolutely 100% a put up job!

This numpty 'appeared' to take the autopilot out at 30,000' (Why???) and 'appeared' to make a perfect landing!!!!!!

I used to quite like DB, but this has completely shot any fleeting credibilty I ever had in what he pedals on TV!!

[General_Kirby]

What a bag of balls! CTC's slave trade must be drying up for them to start pimping themselves out to C4. So he put the gear down on an autoland? As for the rest of the programme....I used to think DB was pretty good, not after that rubbish!

[Wireless]

What a load of b******s. Actor wasn't even good at acting like he wasn't acting.

[AeroMad]

"Hero at 30,000 feet, more like "Hero at 30 feet" :p
One Hour and Fifteen minutes of my life has been wasted watching this trash...

[purplehelmet]

more like idiot at 30ft, how numb must that guy be.
db is a very clever guy and magician but that has to be the worst of his stunts so far.

[Superpilot]

Autopilot on 30,000ft yet twice your hear "Twenty Five Hundred". :E

OK, aside from it being complete nonsense (and DB does admit it to being unrealistic - one pilot in the cockpit, captain sitting on the right etc) they achieved something for the guy. I can attest to many 23 yo people like him. Stuck in a rut. They've changed his life. However, land a plane he did not!

[Just a spotter]

Well it was certainly a long way from being DB's finest show.

HOWEVER, I suspect the assembled posters here are being a little too harsh.

The "success" Brown was looking for was not a perfect textbook landing with passengers clapping, the press applauding and all in time for cocktails in the bar later, or indeed anything close. The goal here was to get the guy to "step into the breach". Which, it would seem, he did. The show wasn't attempting to make a pilot in 30 days.

Now, whether you believe the guy was a 'stooge' or not, IMHO, here's the the wider point/question posed by the show; Can you take an ordinary guy, John Public, from an ordinary background, who has for what ever reason, a slightly suggestive personality and with the right conditioning/training/brainwashing change their mind set so that under 'extraordinary' pressure or 'extraordinary' circumstances they can respond and do 'extraordinary' things? Well, can you?

Maybe that's a question a few of our fellow posters over on the Military forum can answer.

JAS

[AndoniP]

why was the programme "live" but the story all recorded?

the kid starts his flight in the daytime and ends up in the cockpit in darkness. hmmmm :suspect:

of course it's a fake. even the kid can't be that stupid.

[purplehelmet]

i think db wants us to belive that he has found quite possibly the only person in the country over the age of 5 who never thought to ask where's the co-pilot.:ugh:

[juniour jetset]

where was the first officier.. not once did the guy ask this?

they take off and are cruising in broad daylight and suddenly he is making a night landing.. where was the sunset?

what a load of rubbish

agreed 1hr 15mins wasted in my life. Should be renamned "Derren Brown's muppet show"

[Just a spotter]

The majority of people have no insight into the physical, legal or operational issues involved in flying a commercial aircraft (that's not to suggest that I do, merely a passing interest). They turn up, have a drink, get on, hope it doesn't end up as a shouldering dent on the surface of the planet, have another drink and get off at their destination.

As to not believing that people can be quite so naive; personally I can't belive that peole can be so naive as to think that people can be so naive! After all, it's not the first time that the good folk at Channel 4 have been able to find one or more people with no understanding of the situation they were being plunged into for the entertainment of others.

Space Cadets (television hoax) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cadets_%28television_hoax%29)

The show was "entrainment" not science.

JAS

[AndoniP]

just a spotter i do agree with you

generally.

but when one has a complete fear of flying in the first instance, to get over that and pick up the courage to say "i'll do it (even though I have no clue as to what to do and i am afraid of flying)" is a little bit much.

it's the fear of flying bit he hasn't psychologically got over, i doubt his newfound inner mental strength or whatever will make him get over this and land the plane correctly.

[vancouv]

The fact he was landing a plane was irrelevant. The point was that he was doing something he was terrified of (flying) and was then able to step forward and help when nobody else would despite his fear.

I imagine flying was chosen as it is something most people have done, know nothing about how it actually works, and a large number of people are worried about. Having him correcting a computer program to prevent a nuclear explosion would not have had the same televisual appeal.

Once he got into the sim he didn't really do anything - just pushed a few buttons on command. And I bet most people watching would think nothing of the fact that there was only one pilot - and certainly not the Captain being in the RHS.

[AndoniP]

on the contrary, landing the plane was relevant.

he has 2 psychological issues - 1, his confidence, and 2, his fear of flying.

the way i see it, is that the program made him build up his self confidence, but i just cannot see how that would make him get over his fear of flying and sit in the left hand seat :sad:

[tb10er]

Turned off after 5 minutes:ugh:

[darrylj]

fake all the way..makes flying look so bad :ouch:
:ugh::bored:

[L4key]

Do you really think the guy was 'cured' FFS he was acting the whole way through! Utter dross. How about being followed everywhere - that camera crew had pretty good quality footage and sound on him, do you think he didn't notice the full size cameras in the bushes and sound mike above his head??? :rolleyes:

Anyone who is taken in by any 'magic' on TV needs to have a word with themselves...

He hypnotised him whilst asleep in bed with a speaker. Jeeeezzz....

[McBruce]

I agree it was complete :mad:

You heard the autopilot come out late. It wasn't an autoland otherwise you wouldn't have heard "glideslope" in the final stages. He banged it in on the threshold with a nose low attitude. I can't stand the guy but had to watch it on mrs bruces orders as she believes hes god after the lottery stunt. :ugh:

Landing the aircraft is easy, walking away from it is a different question! :E

[Monkey Boy]

Too many people here missing the point. It's like you've been to the theatre and you're complaining that you don't like the flavour of your Cornetto rather than commenting on the show itself! It's nothing to do with the technicalities of flying. Derren Brown even acknowledges in the narration that the situation shown would be impossible in real life, and it would, but the point of the show was to demonstrate how mind programming can change someone's life. And THAT was the point of the show. No, he wasn't an actor, and yes it was all genuine - some people are more vulnerable than others to the power of suggestion, he is one of those guys.

[L4key]

Sorry Monkey boy, can't agree. You're right about the focus perhaps not being right with regards to aviation technicalities however I still have no idea how you can have taken that programme seriously!

He really broke into the policeman's house?
He really got hypnotised in bed while he was asleep with just a speaker?
He really didn't think anything was going on for the whole month?
He landed the plane, without realising it was a simulator? - is it just me or was it light outside then dark as soon as he got into the cockpit??

Not to mention the fact he was supposedly under incredible stress with huge amounts of adrenaline flowing - only to be hypnotised by DB in a second when he was making his way up front...

He gets out of the cockpit, after saving what he supposedly believes, was his own life and that of all the passengers, being seconds from a big flaming fireball, only to realise it's a simulator and DB is stood there - I'd have punched him for putting me through that...

Mind programming! :}

[Bealzebub]

It was all about this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpkkvNNo5bY)

[purplehelmet]

l4key.
lets not forget all the party gear he "borrowed"from the van man who just abandoned it and his job on a whim:confused:,
or how calm and relaxed he was lay on the rail track with a train coming,id have been screaming every name under the sun at db and flapping like a racing pigeon, then battered db to a pulp when i got up.

[Monkey Boy]

Sorry Monkey boy, can't agree. You're right about the focus perhaps not being right with regards to aviation technicalities however I still have no idea how you can have taken that programme seriously!

Simple answer - We were involved very closely with the production company and know exactly what went on. That's how I can take it seriously.

A lot went on behind the scenes which wasn't broadcast. What would be the point of going to all that expense and effort if it was just a set up? The same result could've been achieved on a much smaller budget if it was fake.

Also, from Derren Brown's blog:

"The challenge for us was fitting everything into a seventy-minute show. The changes were manifold and there was much more story to tell. What you see is obviously very trimmed and edited and squashed into the time allotment. Reading the flurry on Tw1tter last night there was clearly a small percentage people who just refused to accept any of it, which is shame but of course completely inevitable. Some insisted Matt and Liv had to be actors. It’s impossible to please everyone, but I can certainly assure anyone questioning that sort of thing that I don’t use actors in that way, and it would be stupid to do so, as I’d have to find, kill or silence all their friends, families and acquaintances too. "

[AndoniP]

basically we were hoping to see lots of "man sh*tting himself in cockpit" with a bit of airport '75-style sequences :E

what we got was a lame story of quiet bum being hypnotised (by a speaker in his bedroom, haha, behave), patting an alligator on the back (he didn't wake up at all eh? righto), being tied up in front of a slow historic train (he would have cr*pped himself in the real world) and then finishing with a handful of commands in a sim. at night time :confused:

i know it's about the psychology of changing people's outlook and confidence or whatever. but the turnaround seems so unlikely that it is simply not believable. getting a bit of confidence and coming out of your shell? understandable to a certain extent. getting over your fear of flying to actually fly an aircraft? i don't think so.

the disappointment mainly comes from an hour of boring story, and 10 minutes actual aviation related stuff. i can imagine aviation enthusiasts would be left thinking, is that it? when someone else would be thinking, hm not bad.

just my 2p...

[L4key]

Lol MB you're in on it too!!!

I can't argue if you say you were involved but I still reserve my right to be unable to suspend my disbelief enough to take it seriously.

[rockrats]

He wasn't even asked to 'land' the plane? If you listened he was asked to HELP land the plane.
If that means simply putting the gear down and pulling back the stick slightly then surely he achieved that?!!!

"Help to land" is different to "can you land the plane please" :ugh: