How much lack of similarity in airliner flying?

"Otis McNatt" wrote in message
om...
Suppose *both* pilots in, say, a B-737, were to die in flight
[snip ]
So, suppose it did happen. If there happened to be an airline pilot
on board who was certified in any of the other Boeing models, from the
717 up the 747 and 777, but having no experience flying the 737, would he
have much of a problem landing the plane?

I'm sure that anyone with an ATPL and experience of some sort of airliner
would be able to get it on the ground, assuming that the systems were
functioning normally (i.e. you only had to contend with the mechanics of
approaches and landings, not broken flaps, hydraulic failures, etc). And a
friend who's a commercial pilot reckons that even a PPL with a decent amount
of experience stands a reasonable chance of landing something like a 737 so
long as there's someone on the radio telling him what buttons to push, what
speeds to use, etc, etc - though for a PPL the problem would be navigating
to the nearest suitable airfield using tools that probably aren't familiar.

This said, a flying instructor friend of mine has a relative who
transitioned from the B757 to the B747 a while back. No real problems except
that the first time he landed this much bigger aircraft, in which the pilot
sits much higher off the ground: "the ground happened rather sooner than I
expected it to".

D.