'Is there a pilot on board?'
 

Do you ever sit there on an airliner fantasising about what you would do if the call came on the intercom, 'Is there a pilot on board?' Could you land a 777?

I had the fantastic opportunity to find that out last week. A friend who is a 777 first officer with a major airline got us a slot on their simulator - the real deal, full motion job - and we spent a happy three hours. So... from my experience, as a bog-standard PPL/IMC with 250 hours (and lots of time spent on MS Flight Sim at home):

(a) I couldn't have done it without my friend telling me what to do - configurations, speeds, &c. But in the real-life scenario, of course, they get someone on the radio to do that (don't they?...)

(b) I didn't use the autopilot, but the thing which really made it easy was the flight director. Whoever invented that should be better known than they are. With speeds/headings/altitudes dialled into the autopilot, hand-flying it to the FD's instructions was a piece of cake.

(c) The systems involved are absolutely mind-boggling, and I have a greatly renewed respect for airline pilots. The time required to learn what all those overhead switches do must be considerable.

(d) The actual experience of hand-flying - circuits, for example - was much easier than I expected. It felt big, but not unreasonably so, and was quite responsive.

(e) Flying under bridges in a 777 is great fun... especially when you bump the plane on a wave and feel the shudder through the entire aircraft.*

(f) The simulator is unbelievably lifelike, even though the visuals are like Flight Sim 1990-vintage. The full motion and sounds are totally convincing.

(g) You can fly an aileron roll in a 777 without losing altitude, though you do have to fight the plane to do it (over 30 deg bank it actively tries to right the plane working against your control inputs). We didn't try a loop...

(h) If the call came for real, yes, I could fly it. With some help from a nice guy on the radio.

Tim

*edited to add: more fun once we'd found the circuit breaker for the EGPWS - which was otherwise rather maddening...

i could fly it. maybe even land it. but it most likely wouldnt be serviceable again.

just make sure that the B777 pilot in the tower (talking me down) hasnt got a vietnam recurring nightmare problem!

Interesting. For some time now I have been trying to sort out some sim-time for ordinary ppl's to try their hand at flying and landing a 737.

Idea is to be strait and level at 10.000ft. You then have to get down to land on rwy27L at Gatwick in one go with only someone telling you what to do as in the first post.

The only criteria is you must hold a ppl, regardless of hours.

I will chase a few things up and hopefully post the invitation here soon.

As they say, "Watch this Space" :)

Sim
 

I will be up for some of that! I have flown an MD80 sim at Gatwick years ago and it was great fun

well can I be number 2 on the list for that then please :ok: - i might see If I can organise somthing similar with a hercules c-130 simulator if anyone would be intersted? :ok:

Isn't a C-130 like a Cessna with four engines? :E

yes it is :ok:

Count me in then! :cool:

Idea is to be strait and level at 10.000ft. You then have to get down to land on rwy27L at Gatwick

Even the ace of the base would find this task completely impossible.

:eek: ???????????????????????:ugh:

Gatwick's runways are 08-26 R & L ... :-)

Wow, I'm up for this one, had a go in the F111 simulator at Upper Heyford many moons ago, luckily they gave me unlimited fuel (it took me a long while to remember to turn off the reheat. Oh and I didn't quite make the runway when I got back to base landed on a nearby freeway (Americans don't have motorways) great experience.

I was in the 747Sim at Cranfield a couple of weeks ago doing the exact same thing for a Human Factors experiment. It is actually surpisingly easy to land as long as you read the RadAlt and not just the pic out the window. I managed to land 6/6 on the runway with no damage. My co-pilot was not quite so lucky however...........:p

I'd certainly like a shot at the sim as well if at all possible !


random

Likewise, would be a good experience having flown a BA 777 at Cranebank some years ago, £600 per hr, £10 per minute :eek:

Never had a go on any sim, and would certainly love the opportunity!

dp

Hey, have you never seen the little grass strip next to 26L????? :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O :O

to land 777...you don't need a pilot for that;)
You need a pilot to land Tu-154 and Cessna, Piper, Moony etc. :)

oooops := :D :)

They did something like this on Krypton Factor many years ago. Only watched it once (honest) and one of the contestents did a very good job of landing a jet, others not so good at all. This was before people had flight sims at home which would teach you how to do it before you turned up for the show.

About 12-15 years ago I had a trip in the BA 744 sim at Cranebank. Landing at LHR was straight-forward enough, Kai Tak at night was tremendous sport. :D