"Aviation" wrote in message Is this an automatic "safety" feature of real, regular
aircraft?
On the one hand, passengers need to get denser air to breathe
but large aircraft have oxygen masks that drop down.

The pilots initiate the dive for the reasons you suggest. While
supplemental oxygen helps, it's still better to get down to a reasonable
altitude. They presmably notify ATC while they are doing this that
there is an emergency in progress.

My ears would explode.)

Your ears already exploded when the aircraft cabin went from an
effective altitude of 8000 feet to 36,000 feet in a few seconds when
the depressurization occured.

The second Hollywood inspired question comes from Executive
Decision (1996). The main character is taking flying lessons
in a single prop 2-seater plane and lands. The plane is still
running (on the ground) and his instructor says, 'I think
you're ready to solo' and gets out. The main character starts
to taxi and then other non-flying plot developments happen.
I was wondering if taking your FIRST solo flight is that simple.

That's about how it happens. Technically, the student pilot's certificate
and logbook need to be signed to authorize the solo flight...but that's
pretty much how it happened to me. The instructor figured I was ready,
did a couple of landings with him (without him indicating that I might be
ready for solo) and then he got out. It was at a controlled field, so
shortly after takeoff, the controller asked how much better it flew without
that fat guy in the right seat.

Wouldn't the first time soloist
have to fill out some forms, file a flight plan with the
airport and maybe even do a complete pre-flight check on the
aircraft?

It wasn't Washington, it was "supposed" to be Frederick, Maryland about 50 miles NW
of DC. No flight plan is required, and the pre-flight check was done before they took off
the first time together, so there isn't much reason to do another.

Of course, most of the rest of that movie, including to stupid diversion to FDK rather than
Dulles (the Dulles runways are much wider and over twice as long as FDK), etc...