Co-pilot gets sick, stewardess helps land airplane

On Jun 16, 9:19*am, "Clarence do we have clearance?"
wrote:
Maybe he shouldn't have had the fish. *Thank goodness Karen Black was
working the flight!

Given this set of circumstances, what types of assistance would a
commercial-rated pilot be able to offer assuming she is not rated on
this type aircraft? I would guess-communications with ATC primarily.
What else?

GrtArtiste

"GrtArtiste" wrote in message
...
On Jun 16, 9:19 am, "Clarence do we have clearance?"
wrote:
Maybe he shouldn't have had the fish. Thank goodness Karen Black was
working the flight!

Given this set of circumstances, what types of assistance would a
commercial-rated pilot be able to offer assuming she is not rated on
this type aircraft? I would guess-communications with ATC primarily.
What else?

Reading checklists aloud, perhaps setting radios & transponder, another set of
eyes looking for traffic.

Of course, what seems to have been left out of this story is that the Captain
was likely perfectly capable of flying the plane all by himself, but still, 1.5
pilots should be slightly safer than 1; particularly if the Captain and the
Copilot ate the same meal!.

Vaughn

vaughn writes:

Of course, what seems to have been left out of this story is that the Captain
was likely perfectly capable of flying the plane all by himself ...

Not merely likely but certainly, by design. It's a non-event.

Given this set of circumstances, what types of assistance would a
commercial-rated pilot be able to offer assuming she is not rated on
this type aircraft? I would guess-communications with ATC primarily.
What else?

She, as mentioned, can help run the radio. She also can read "check
lists."

The pilot knows where the various switches/levers are.

She can also call off speeds when landing.

Depending upon how much skill she has, she can double check whether the
pilot correctly did what the check list recommended. Indeed, that and the
radio are the only two areas where "flight" experience is useful.

Once Upon A Time,
John Gilmer wrote:

Given this set of circumstances, what types of assistance would a
commercial-rated pilot be able to offer assuming she is not rated on
this type aircraft? I would guess-communications with ATC primarily.
What else?

She, as mentioned, can help run the radio. She also can read "check
lists."

The pilot knows where the various switches/levers are.

She can also call off speeds when landing.

She can also re-inflate the auto-pilot, Otto, don't forget.


**
Captain Infinity

GrtArtiste writes:

Given this set of circumstances, what types of assistance would a
commercial-rated pilot be able to offer assuming she is not rated on
this type aircraft? I would guess-communications with ATC primarily.
What else?

The same things any non-pilot could do: move levers and buttons when the
captain asks her two, read checklists, communicate with ATC, etc. It helps a
bit if she has piloting experience, but that doesn't mean that she will be
doing anything that _requires_ piloting experience.

On Jun 17, 2:44*pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
GrtArtiste writes:
Given this set of circumstances, what types of assistance would a
commercial-rated pilot be able to offer assuming she is not rated on
this type aircraft? I would guess-communications with ATC primarily.
What else?

The same things any non-pilot could do: move levers and buttons when the
captain asks her two, read checklists, communicate with ATC, etc. *It helps a
bit if she has piloting experience, but that doesn't mean that she will be
doing anything that _requires_ piloting experience.

This is absolutely correct. At no time was this attendant actually
flying this aircraft. She came up front and sat down in the right seat
acting as an extra set of hands to select, push, pull, and turn, any
and all switches and levers as asked for by the Captain. She acted as
an "assistant" and that's all.
Not to take anything away from this lady who performed as asked to
perform under trying circumstances, and indeed she personally appeared
on national TV this morning to "set straight" all the hype being
presented about her acting in any other capacity than that I have
stated above.
It helped certainly that this nice lady had flying experience but it
was by NO MEANS essential to what she was asked to do or what she
actually did in the cockpit.
Had the Captain opted to, he most certainly could have completed the
flight to a safe completion from the left seat without assistance. He
might have had to extend his reach a bit at times, but nothing earth
shattering for sure.
All in all, this was a class crew and they did a class job, right down
to the stew who very classily and politely deflated the media hype on
her role in the completion of this flight.
Dudley Henriques

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:10:01 -0700, Dudley Henriques wrote:

It helped certainly that this nice lady had flying experience but it
was by NO MEANS essential to what she was asked to do or what she
actually did in the cockpit.

Had the Captain opted to, he most certainly could have completed the
flight to a safe completion from the left seat without assistance. He
might have had to extend his reach a bit at times, but nothing earth
shattering for sure.

All in all, this was a class crew and they did a class job, right down
to the stew who very classily and politely deflated the media hype on
her role in the completion of this flight.

Consider who would have been landing the plane if something had caused
the pilot to also conk out, though. Then her prior flight experience
would have become quite relevant indeed.

On Jun 18, 12:13*am, Wingnut wrote:
On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:10:01 -0700, Dudley Henriques wrote:
It helped certainly that this nice lady had flying experience but it
was by NO MEANS essential to what she was asked to do or what she
actually did in the cockpit.

Had the Captain opted to, he most certainly could have completed the
flight to a safe completion from the left seat without assistance. He
might have had to extend his reach a bit at times, but nothing earth
shattering for sure.

All in all, this was a class crew and they did a class job, right down
to the stew who very classily and politely deflated the media hype on
her role in the completion of this flight.

Consider who would have been landing the plane if something had caused
the pilot to also conk out, though. Then her prior flight experience
would have become quite relevant indeed.

It's an interesting hypothesis for sure, and such a scenario has
indeed been the subject of many discussions over time. The general
consensus in the area where I work in human factors in aircraft
accidents is that the result of such an attempt would depend on many
factors, a great many of these factors over and above the "experience"
factor of the newbie involved.
Makes a great movie though :-))
DH

Wingnut writes:

Consider who would have been landing the plane if something had caused
the pilot to also conk out, though. Then her prior flight experience
would have become quite relevant indeed.

Not necessarily. In a situation like that, what would be most important would
be her ability to follow instructions precisely, and the availability of a
qualified pilot to guide her over the radio. These two things would override
any piloting experience she might have.

There are two myths that need to be dispelled, namely (1) the notion that
anyone with any piloting experience necessarily will do a better job of
getting an plane home safely in an emergency, and (2) the notion that someone
without any piloting experience would necessarily crash the airplane.

The skill needed when both pilots get sick from the fish is an ability to do
as one is told, and this is independent of piloting experience. Additionally,
a qualified pilot needs to be available on the radio (preferably an
instructor). An experienced Cessna pilot without help over the radio will
probably get in some possibly fatal trouble, and conversely a non-pilot with
expert help over the radio may well be able to land the airplane safely.

This has a great deal to do with automation and the differences between
airliners and small aircraft.

You would definitely want to avoid someone who might be tempted to take
initiatives rather than just follow instructions--and for this reason, putting
a Cessna pilot in the left seat might actually be a worse idea than putting a
complete non-pilot in that seat. The non-pilot might be more likely to just do
as he is told, which is exactly what you need.