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by CaptainOfCoit 907 days ago
Another 100% (dangerous) anecdote: once upon a time, a boss of mine took me for a flight in his Cessna. As is tradition for him, he let the passenger up front to control the airplane in the air for a minute or two. Apparently, he thought I was good enough when controlling the airplane in the air that I should attempt a landing. As I was young and dumb, I obliged and successfully landed the airplane. Even have video evidence of this happening which is a fun ~10 minute video of me lacking composure while landing my first airplane.

And yes, I attribute this to me spending 1000+ hours in various flight simulators since I got my first computer. And also yes, I know this was reckless and dangerous.
4 comments
pc86 907 days ago
Neither reckless nor dangerous, not sure why you would think it was either when there was an experience pilot right there who could have taken controls at any moment if necessary. As a sibling comment points out it's the equivalent of him holding your hand while you're controlling it. It's you would have been able to put in any dangerous control inputs without intentionally overpowering him.
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thepasswordis 907 days ago
I don’t think it’s that reckless.

Landing an airplane like that is basically a step by step checklist and there is a lot of indicators along the way if something is going wrong.

Also he has a second set of controls in his hands. He’s basically holding your hand.

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rainsford 907 days ago
The best part of that story is that at least for small planes, I feel like landing is one of the things simulators are worst at simulating and least useful as a replacement for experience in a real plane. Maybe the whole approach and decent is simulated OK, but I don't think I've ever flow a sim (even the "real" ones) that quite captures the last part settling gently down onto the ground. But trainers can also take some pretty rough landings :)
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user_7832 907 days ago
As someone who’s never flown IRL (but has played around in a few simulators), do you have any idea/reasons why this is so? I’d imagine it partly down to the “overriding” of senses (forces/g’s) in actual flight vs simulation, and perhaps the lack of stereoscopic vision.

Would this also extend to navigation landing?

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Enginerrrd 907 days ago
Reckless, dangerous, and AWESOME.
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