On Mar 23, 11:14 am, Mxsmanic wrote:
Kingfish writes:
I watched that goofy Segal movie Executive Decision the other day
where Kurt Russell was a student pilot flying a Bo, and later used his
stellar(?) flying skills to plant a 747 at a GA airport. It got me
thinking about ab initio folks learning in Cirruses (Cirri?)
Obviously with no prop or gear control it's a simpler aircraft to fly
but the performance is equal to or better than a A36.

The most unrealistic part about movies in which inexperienced pilots (or
non-pilots) fly 747s is that a 747 would most likely be flown by computer in
real life. The "pilot" would never have to worry about handling the controls
because he wouldn't have to touch them. The automation on a large airliner is
quite capable of flying to any destination and (usually) autolanding on any
decent runway with an ILS localizer and glide path.

What?? I've never flown a 747 but I teach TAA (technically advanced
aircraft). It is **WAY** more difficult to fly the plane on automation
than to just hand fly it. The biggest problem we have is pilots
shutting off the system and just hand flying all the time. If I found
myself in the cockpit of a 747 I certainly wouldn't try to learn all
the automation in 5 minutes, I'd probably shut most of it off (maybe
just use heading and altitude hold).

-Robert, CFII