I disagree.
I had the opportunity to fly a full motion 737 sim at
America West airlines and took the controls while "in the
air" with no instruction and landed the aircraft and taxiied
it off the active. I was familar with the Phoenix airspace
so I had good visual references to work with Only problem I
had was finding the trim button so I delt with the heavy
controls.

Didn't even bounce it with a slight crosswind programmed
into the sim. Definitely not the same stress level as flying
the real thing for the first time. Flaps, brakes, thrust
reversers, and the nose control wheel aren't all that
difficult to figure out.

I do have a PPL and experience in a bunch of 2 and 4
seaters. (Cessna, Piper, Beech, Dimona, L-39)

Hey if you can land one of these drunk, (Northwest and
America West pilots.) I know I could land the real thing
sober.

Bart

Bart D. Hull

Tempe, Arizona

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wrote:
E.g save our souls by a piper cub pilot...



Martin


Not likely. The average airliner has so little in common with the
average lightplane that the pilot would just change the scene of the
crash. Airliner navigation systems are so complex that he wouldn't be
able to figure out where he was, much less get the thing configured and
lined up for a workable approach and landing, and things like gear and
flaps slats and spoilers and reverse thrust can keep two experienced
pilots plenty busy. Just figuring out how to disable the autopilot
might take time. An airliner responds very slowly to control inputs
compared to a lightplane and is travelling much faster, so requires a
lot of advance thinking. We have commercial students who have trouble
keeping up with an advanced lightplane while breathing good air at low
altitude, unlike our mythical Cub pilot in a depressurized and
freezing-cold airliner.


Dan