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hunguu@reddit

Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias where people with low competence in a particular domain also lack the metacognition (awareness of their own thought processes) to recognize their own lack of skill, leading them to overestimate their abilities.

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RevolutionNearby3736@reddit

He certainly could land it, but doubt if he or anyone else would walk away from that. Just because he can fly one on his computer doesn't mean it's real life with real life consequences.

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MoralMinimum@reddit

Yea a lot of men think this. I do it professionally, I’ve taught people to fly, and I have taken friends in simulators. I believe you can get a full motion simulator rental at the Delta museum in Atlanta. Get signed up, as to put the plane on downwind in the “clean” configuration and have him try and do it without any assistance.

Planes will humble someone fast. You’re moving faster than an untrained brain can process.

Over-confidence is the mark of an amateur.

AOPA's pinch hitter course might be a good idea if you fly with him a lot.

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MoralMinimum@reddit

You know a lot more than I bet you let on too! For instance, every one say “the tower will help”. You probably know how to a) find & tune the radio b) transmit c) STOP transmitting and d) put a headset/speaker on to listen.

Those are not obvious steps with a checklist or guide. You have to have experience to know.

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Creative-Dust5701@reddit

or being a ham radio guy - we are used to poor audio quality

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MoralMinimum@reddit

If an average person can get lined up on the runway without help I’d be impressed. I’ll even forgive them for dumping flaps and gear out above rated speeds, that doesn’t matter in an emergency. Hitting flat concrete near ARFF is better for everyone than some random trees or buildings.

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bob_cramit@reddit

Yeah I was assuming a perfect weather day. I also assume most people wouldnt even put flaps or gear down at all?

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I’ve never done it, so I can’t vouch - but here’s the link to it online!

https://deltamuseum.org/experiences/daily-experiences/flight-simulator

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SumOfKyle@reddit

That’s an expensive .8!

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Fit_Employment_2595@reddit

Bring 4 and it's only 115 a person

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Charge yourself more. Then it'll work just fine!

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livebeta@reddit

instructions unclear, plugged USB-C into self

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Mountain-Dealer8996@reddit

What’s the difference between that “full motion” thing and the AATD (Redbird) at my school? The Redbird has 6 degrees of freedom, which I would have thought was full motion. It’s not super-duper realistic (especially the rudder action), but it’s pretty close for 1/4 the price of that Delta simulator anyway.

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stephen1547@reddit

A redbird simulator is just a generic flight sim with some very limited motion. From having a look, I don't think they offer 6 degrees of freedom, just three (Pitch/Roll/Yaw). That would require a Stewart Platform or something similar. This type of platform allows the ability to add heave/sway/surge to the movement, which is important for specific maneuvers to feel real. Flying helicopters, it's even more important when simulating certain tail rotor emergencies.

A true Level D/Type 7 sim will be modelled after a specific aircraft model, and all the cockpit components will be from the actual aircraft. That means when you sit in them, they look and feel exactly like the real thing because they are the real thing. The control/display units for the FMS in the helicopter I fly costs as much as the entire Redbird simulator.

The flight model is also developed and tested to mimic as well as they can the real aircraft, so when you're performing a real emergency you know it's going to be just like the sim. Those years of muscle memory you develop in training in the sim HAVE to translate into the same movements in the real thing.

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Mountain-Dealer8996@reddit

Ah, you’re right; it’s just the three degrees of motion. Thanks

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taxcheat@reddit

but it’s pretty close for 1/4 the price of that Delta simulator anyway.

You're off by about $13 million. Though the Delta one is ancient.

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Mountain-Dealer8996@reddit

I’m talking about what it costs for me to rent it. I’m not buying a new one

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taxcheat@reddit

cbph@reddit

Surely there was more to it

But all my points to another commenter stand, he must find the radios, tune an appropriate frequency, transmit, stop transmitting and have a headset on or a radio up. Miss any of those steps and the instructor can’t reply.

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John_E_Vegas@reddit

ATC doesn’t know how to fly planes, and you’re often landing with only 45-60 minutes of gas. So you better hope ATC can get someone into the building/on the radio who can help fast.

As a 30+ year pilot who uses a Sim to keep IFR current, I find the simulators are actually harder to handle that a real general aviation aircraft.

I think where 'the wheels come off' for most people who think they can just jump in a plane and fly it is when you tell them you steer with your feet. That opens at least to totally oblivious people's eyes.

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EndOfTheKaliYuga@reddit

What about a fucking SEASONED flight simmer? Does he have a chance in the simulator?

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MoralMinimum@reddit

If he’s on the specific airplane, he may be able to configure it but flying is different than sitting in non motion, or even motion sims.

Like I don’t think MSFS has an E175, or 717 or 757 set up. So if they’re seasoned on the 320, it’ll be vastly different layouts. They’d have a huge advantage but still a lot to learn.

And then, even flying the simulator feels dramatically different than the real world.

Imagine coming in to land at a major airport, the last 1,000 feet of air is very mixed up. Landing in MSP 30L, there is a lake. Right over the lake, you get a big sink followed by a big lift right before the runway. Fly in there a lot and you know how to handle it and prep for it.

Landing south in DFW in the summer you get tons of residual wake turbulence and lift in the last 100-200 feet from the heat coming off the highways.

You have to not over control and know how to handle this. The sims can’t really replicate it that well.

Now what if the plane doesn’t have auto throttles? Or any of a thousand MELs that are legal to have? Or other weather conditions, such as landing into the sunset or sunrise?

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EndOfTheKaliYuga@reddit

No for sure, I get that getting a perfect/textbook landing would be incredibly challenging even for an experienced simmer, but I definitely feel like they could get the plane down relatively safely excluding any extreme meteorological phenomenon.

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MoralMinimum@reddit

It all depends on the relative word. That’s doing all the work.

In MSP, you’re likely to quickly lose 20 knots of airspeed just before landing. It’s common.

Don’t add power fast enough, start a little slow, or worse, not have the aircraft configured properly? Stall, spin, crash.

Again, I’m not saying this to be mean or elitist, but like, there is a reason people spend thousands of hours training. I have 10,000+ landings and I still fuck up approaches & landings.

I had a funny experience. Many, many years ago, I was in a research facility that had a Space Shuttle simulator (no motion). My buddy was an ex-Navy pilot who later went on to a career as a civilian test pilot. Anyway, he was flying the simulator, and he challenged me to land it. At the time, I had zero hours in real or simulated aircraft. Very first try, I absolutely nailed the landing. My buddy was absolutely crestfallen, and I felt like an ace.

If I weren't an idiot, I would have walked away right then. Unfortunately, I tried again and proved it was just a fluke.

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jgpitre@reddit

I was a glider pilot 40 years ago. I had the opportunity to fly a Herc Sim (top of the line) and lost control trying to line up the runway for a long in approach. Overcontroled it.

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waddlek@reddit

Had the opportunity to fly the C-5 Full Motion Simulator. PPL that hasn’t flown in years. Was able to takeoff and land, with some coaching. Inflight refueling? Not so much.

The Delta sim looks pretty cool

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Why-R-People-So-Dumb@reddit

You’re moving faster than an untrained brain can process.

I still remember this aha moment connecting some dots about why landing, and takeoff for that matter are so difficult.

1) Planes handle terribly on the ground, they are meant to fly. Cars handle better on the ground.

2) I'm landing on a 50' wide strip of pavement with a machine that handles poorly on the ground, that has tires smaller than my lawnmower tires, has no steering wheel at or above highway speed.

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Mega-Eclipse@reddit

I think some could get a trainer down, and live to tell about it. It wouldn't be pretty, and some metal is going to get bent more often than not.

This guy had his friend try it in a real plane.

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well_shoothed@reddit

My first trip in the sim, my instructor said,

"Keep your right hand on the throttle."
"Be sure your right hand is on the throttle."
"Your right hand. Where's it go?"

The throttle.

"Outstanding! One more question: Where are you keeping your right hand?"

The throttle.

Sets me up in for a takeoff in the sim, where's my right hand go?

Yoke.

She zapped all power.

Faceplanted the plane from 20' off the ground.

Recently my girlfriend got me a real flight simulator experience at a local place, never done it before but I was excited.

I picked one of the more difficult options available and took a Cessna.

When we started flying, the instructor was immediately impressed, I knew all the controls, knew the procedures, he said the take off and general flying was excellent for my first time in a real sim.

He initially offered to help with some throttle control but later realised I didn’t need it. It was going well.

Anyways, we turn around and get ready to land, instructor prepares me for everything. I get close to the runway but I needed to make some adjustments. Everything smooth so far.

The issue I have is, I still have muscle memory of my sim controls at home and the real sim feels very different and extremely sensitive. For some reason I hit the wrong controls when making adjustments, the instructor warned me and reminded me to correct again with more rudder, I panic and over correct as we touch down, the plane skids off the runway, hits some sort of grassy patch and flips upside down.

It just instantly went from everything being fine to total disaster in the blink of an eye, it shocked me how quickly my mistake turned to disaster and I was immediately humbled. I lost confidence and panicked.

I was upset at the time because I wanted to pull off a perfect flight first time, but it made me appreciate and respect the skill required by real pilots who do this every day.

In my normal job, I can have a bit of a bad day and nobody dies, but if a pilot is having a bad day then you’re gonna have a bad time. You need to be on top form all the time.

Anyway the point of my story is, I’m so glad this was in a flight sim because if this was a real flight and I let my cockiness get the better of me thinking I didn’t need real training, then it would have been a guaranteed disaster.

It looks so much easier than it actually is.

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Roger_Freedman_Phys@reddit

Buy him a discovery flight at your local flight school. Ask to sit in the back seat while he sits in the front with the flight instructor. Then video the proceedings, while stifling the urge to laugh out loud.

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Sealife78@reddit

Must be a DCS player

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Boredintown1@reddit

Depends on the plane. I think under good circumstances, a single engine prop, lots of space, good visibility - you would be quite easily able to take off. You could equally easily fly around a little. And with luck and enough space - you could also land and stop again. Landing around the spot you want to is the hardest part - but with a little luck, doable.

The faster you are, the harder it is land in the right spot. I used to own a mooney. I would not want to try landing a commercial jet without training. Mooney not the best plane for the no experience experiment either, but a Piper Cadet or a Cessna 172 or so - not impossible

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Small-Letterhead2046@reddit

Your husband would almost certainly be dead, along with everyone else on board the aircraft.

Yeah, it happens in really rare cases, that an untrained person gets the aircraft to the ground safely, but your odds are better in winning the lottery than this occurring.

If IMC is involved the odds go even further down.

Hand flying in IMC is still my favourite part of flying. Absolutely loved IMC approaches.

I have a friend who is a video game (flying) fanatic and who, like your husband, also believed that he could take over a flight successfully.

I took him up on a VFR day in my Cessna 340II and let him fly the aircraft around a bit. We went over Mt. Baker and further south to stay VMC as the weather was deteriorating. He did very poorly and actually stated that the airplane "wasn't realistic" ... I am not kidding!! He actually said that!!

The weather went from bad to worse and I had to air file IFR to get back into YVR.

As we started on a 70 mile approach from 16,000 or so, and were about to enter IMC, at which point he became very anxious and kept motioning like he was going to grab the controls.

This was the first time in my flying career that I felt compelled to tell someone to sit on their hands or move to a seat in the back. We were in moderate chop, solid IMC, no big deal.

The only other time that I did the same thing was with a pretty experienced VFR pilot in the right seat but with all seats full, I couldn't tell him to move to the back!

Moreover, we were really in the thick of it with heavy icing conditions (TCU's and nowhere to escape to). The turbulence was close to extreme so moving seats was not an option anyway.

This poor guy literally jumped and shrieked every time ice came off the props and hit the fuselage. I tried to reassure him that this was normal, that the ice wasn't too bad, nothing to worry about, but by that time he really wasn't hearing me and seemed to be in his own world.

The aircraft was certified for known ice, and I had plenty of time in icing conditions, but that news also fell on deaf ears.

I had to speak to him loudly to get his attention and told him that for the safety of the flight, he needed to sit on his hands. He quickly complied.

In a way, this fellow, with plenty of VFR experience, was more dangerous than my flight video player friend.

So, back to your husband ... I would give an untrained person an absolute zero chance of making it through IMC conditions, especially if an IMC approach was required. Zero chance.

unless of course you’re over water,

WCGW?

It's only a 1.5-ton (empty) machine with a spinny pair of swords up front and a few dozen gallons of burny liquid inside hurtling through the air with enough combined kinetic and potential energy to obliterate a small building, and which can easily be mishandled in unintuitive ways to a complete novice.

jking615@reddit

So that never really goes away does it?

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dopexile@reddit

Dunning-Kruger effect

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MothraTheresa@reddit

Just came here to say that.

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SwampyUndies@reddit

I was working towards my ppl a few years ago but stopped part way through.

Been simming at home and gotten fairly familiar with the a320.

Felt confident I could fly the real thing so rented a full size a320 sim that pilots train on. Did two perfect landings, then one with engine failure. Then tried inclement weather and that was a but rougher landing slightly off centre by about 10 feet. I only used the autopilot for parts of the circuit, landing was auto throttle only or nothing.

So yes. Im fairly certain I could land most airbus planes in real if i had to. Sure i dont know all the emergency procedures memorized and dont know many of the general guidelines lines, but i know the nav system enough to get me around.

lisaseileise@reddit

That‘s a neat description of the Dunning Kruger effect.

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CMDR_Imperator@reddit

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

Wisdom comes from experience.Experience is often the result of a lack of wisdom.

-Sir Terence Pratchett

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outworlder@reddit

You can certainly "take off" and "land" with zero experience. You may not be able to do it more than once though.

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shrunkenhead041@reddit

I don't know the attribution, but I use:

That's the first thing I'd do if I was magically transported into (most types) at 8000 AGL: run through a bunch of different stall configurations.

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bkpilot@reddit

Maybe for the 737 you fly, but a C152 or DA20? Do you really need to memorize all of V speeds to make plane go up?

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Mavtroll1@reddit

I didn’t say I couldn’t get it airborne, nor am I saying I couldn’t land it, I’m saying it would not be a simple task.

I still have a vague idea of speeds, and would just use my basic memory plus a few kts for safety. I would survive.

I have always found it hilarious that people with less than 1000hrs are super happy to just jump into and aircraft they have never flown while airliner pilots with thousands of hours are likely to ask for an instructor for a few circuits first… what does that tell you?

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bkpilot@reddit

I was only referring to completing a circuit. Otherwise I agree with you. It’s nuts to fly an unfamiliar airplane without training. They’re all so nuanced. Would you die? Unlikely in fair weather pattern work. But damage to airplane or engine or airport? Yeah pretty likely.

As a pilot for 25 years who still learns something new everyday, I believe your husband may be able to start a small plane, taxi it, and maybe take it off the ground if he was a bit lucky… but staying aloft and landing in one piece, is definitely an art and science that needs A LOT of learning and A LOT of practice on what we learned.

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External_Upstairs572@reddit

Think & choose wisely.

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External_Upstairs572@reddit

It is extremely unlikely that someone could safely fly or land a plane without any prior experience—operating and landing an aircraft require specialized knowledge and training that cannot be improvised.

Training and Skill Requirements

Pilots must undergo extensive study of aerodynamics, regulations, aircraft systems, and emergency procedures before even practicing on actual planes.
Hands-on training with certified instructors is required, progressing from basic single-engine planes to more complex aircraft.
The process involves months to years of training and hundreds of hours of practice, including simulators and real flights before pilots are allowed to command a plane.

Risks for Untrained Individuals

Untrained persons have a less than 1% chance of surviving an attempted landing without help; the odds only improve with expert instruction from ground control or an instructor talking them through procedures.
Takeoff and landing are the most technically complex and dangerous parts of flying, requiring rapid decision-making, coordination, and knowledge of how to use the aircraft’s controls and interpret instrument data.
Even with familiarity from flight simulators, landing a real plane is often described as “stupidly dangerous” for novices.

Real-World Incidents

On rare occasions, a passenger has landed a plane after being coached by air traffic controllers, but this was under controlled conditions and still considered remarkable.

Legal and Regulatory Barriers

All aircraft operations require the pilot to be appropriately certified for both legal and safety reasons.
Operating an airplane without a license or formal training is illegal and endangers lives.

In summary, flying a plane with no experience is not feasible and is highly unsafe. Proper training is absolutely essential before attempting to operate an aircraft.

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Isaymanythings@reddit

how attached to him are you? get him in a plane & invite him to prove it.

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l3ubba@reddit

Is this a sly way of trying to make OP single so you can swoop in?

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Isaymanythings@reddit

haha 'swoop in' - keeping it aeronautical - nice

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SwinnieThePooh@reddit

Take it easy pardner

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Former_Farm_3618@reddit

Haha. Maybe a lil harsh but such is reality. Imagine the mental gymnastics one has to go through to honestly believe they can do something people train for months/years.

It reminds me of the video of Kim John “flying” a plane. So ridiculous.

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SwinnieThePooh@reddit

Yeah I guess it depends on how good this guy thinks his takeoff and landing would be. I'd say a relatively coordinated person with experience in stressful situations could probably land and survive like 20% of the time. The plane would be severely damaged, though. The other 80% would probably be a fireball.

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Waste_Cheetah_2358@reddit (OP)

Dang you sound pretty miserable..

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Quite the opposite! I’d let my sig other see my post (not just comments but post) history. Would you? Being open and honest is key. Ask them what else they believe they can “just do” with zero training people spend weeks/months/years perfecting.

Who knows, maybe they are the first to just be able to fly zero training. I dunno..

Goodluck…

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Slim to none. Go down to your local flight school and give it a shot.

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Weasel474@reddit

Discovery flight in a tailwheel. Preferably on a breezy day.

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littlelowcougar@reddit

Most PPLs with zero tail wheel time would suck at this.

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countextreme@reddit

I'm sure. The endorsement exists for a reason

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BelowAverage355@reddit

I'd wind up in a ditch on the highway next to the runway, most likely.

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Random61504@reddit

Haha the last two times I flew, my instructor recorded my landings. The other day sucked, gusty, turbulent, I bounced, but today was a small crosswind and a greaser landing so I'll just send that when they cry about my bad sim landings!

sw00pr@reddit

I knew a guy who claimed he could beat Mike Tyson. Guy was 2/3 blind from degenerate eye disease.

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BelowAverage355@reddit

Yeah, I was gonna say take a discovery flight. Shit gets real when the earth starts getting a lot bigger all the sudden.

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russki516@reddit

The only thing I screwed up on my flight was pushing vs pulling the throttle, guess when? I immediately corrected, and was able to set it down pretty smoothly and the instructor seemed to be very hands off, but I was too focused to breathe or blink.

PabloZissou@reddit

Well I've seen all House seasons thrice so if you need and expert in rare deseases call me. Spoiler: IT'S NOT LUPUS!

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Kastle20@reddit

Just remember, only stupid people try the medicine drug!

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Jolly_Line@reddit

I slept in a Holiday Inn

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AlphaBetacle@reddit

Ok not to reduce flying but surgery is a much more complicated thing than landing a plane 😂

That being said I agree he can’t do it.

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Jolly_Line@reddit

Ive been meaning to get my shoulder fixed but it’s not covered under my insurance…

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entitledprk@reddit

OPs husband can probably help

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https://www.denverpost.com/2017/07/12/james-pennington-plea-deal-denver-testicle-removal/ Is this you?

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florestiner12312@reddit

If he means land it in a manner that damages nothing and renders the plane immediately flyable again, like a pilot would, the odds are zero percent.

If he means there will be “some” survivors I’d give him a 50/50 shot. If he has help.

If he had no help from ATC (couldn’t figure out how to use the radio) and didn’t know where he was, he’d start going in a straight line after he got to the clearance limit, run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere, and everyone would die.

If he somehow took the controls at the final approach fix, no instructions but runway in sight, maybe 10 percent shot of survivors.

rasteek@reddit

amm, what?

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livebeta@reddit

talking to Lockheed tech support for 50 minutes. Finally had to eject

Pilot: *sits nervously in seat onboard fighter jet

Automated voice on phone: welcome to Lockheed Martin tech support . Listen carefully as our options here changed.

To check support subscription status, press 1.

To pay for new support plans, press 2.

To listen to common technical frequently asked questions and solutions, press 3.

To speak with a technical support operator, press zero, or hold the line.

Pilot: *keys zero

Phone bot: you're customer #19 in the queue. Please hold...

fifty minutes later

Pilot: this is (rank) (name) of (squadron). My airplane is malfunctioning mid flight.

LM tech: airframe serial number please?

Pilot: *cites human - unfriendly alphanumeric string similar to a VIN

LM tech: sorry I regret to inform you that your support subscription has expired and we're not able to provide tech support. Would you like to upgrade your squadron's support plan? We have a 25% offer ongoing and will only cost $5M

Pilot: *sighs and ejects

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pliiplii2@reddit

Gpt 8 would’ve had a solution

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Creative-Dust5701@reddit

GPT8 > useless human die GPT has no use for you!

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Oregon-Pilot@reddit

Icon salesperson has entered the chat

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No_Doc_Here@reddit

Sounds great. How about you also built a submarine out of unproven materials with an unproven process and, lacking any safety culture, take paying passengers down to the Titanic.

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After_Leadership_390@reddit

That’s like saying you don’t know how to start a car but you could win an F1 race once someone hands you the keys. Planes aren’t video games — the hardest part isn’t just ‘stick up = go up, stick down = go down.’ You’d have to manage throttle, trim, flaps, airspeed, altitude, communication with ATC, reading instruments, handling turbulence, and landing alignment. Even licensed pilots spend hundreds of hours in simulators before being trusted solo. The chance of a total beginner taking off, flying, AND landing a plane safely is basically zero — unless you count the kind of “landing” where the plane and everyone in it doesn’t walk away. So yeah, he’s not just wrong, he’s delusional.”

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Germainshalhope@reddit

You spent hundreds of hours in a simulator before you solo'd?

It’s like saying with 0 priory training or experience you could disassemble and reassemble an M16 in under a minute. Utter fucking bluster and bullshit.

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Dinosaur_Wrangler@reddit

Hard agree. This has such “I’d have joined the military but I’d have punch the drill sergeant in the face” vibes. No you wouldn’t have. Secondly if you did, what are you gonna do next? Take over army school yourself?

Me thinks (if they are American, as far too many of them are) they'd be invited to explore the US Discplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth for a time.

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Crusoebear@reddit

Kind of like the percentage of men who think they can win in a fight with a bear.

A good old fashioned, passionate ass whooping.

I sat next to a captain on a commercial flight once and asked her if I would be able.

She said it will pretty much land itself so it didn't matter.

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Jesus_is_king___@reddit

I'm almost done with my Commercial training, and I would not be able to land an airliner. Airliners are a completely different type of flying.

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I’m a student pilot with 15 hours in the air and countless hours studying and learning. I’m be no means any type of expert, but I think I can weigh in here. Anyone with more experience feel free to correct me on my highly scientific analysis.

Here’s my take, with arbitrary % chances of success, for whatever tf it’s worth.

Start up: for the uninitiated, nearly impossible, almost no chance he would know how to start the airplane. It’s a sequence of flipping switches, pushing/pulling levers, and finally holding the ignition. And I guess just forget about the preflight inspection, weight and balance etc. 3% chance of success.
Taxi: also for the uninitiated, very difficult. It’s not intuitive. 95% chance he starts moving and immediately gets stuck in the grass off the parking ramp. 5% chance of success.
Take off: this parts actually pretty easy, pretty good chance anyone could accomplish this with a long and wide runway. The airplane wants to fly. The one caveat is understanding the rudder pedals and left turning tendency. 80-90% chance of success.
Climb: decent chance of stalling and crashing somewhere on climb out due to too steep a climb, especially after losing sight of ground references, high aoa and/or low airspeed. 50% chance of success.

5: Cruise: assuming good weather/vis and low winds, cruising around isn’t that difficult. Once you’re up to altitude and speed, gotta pull the power back some. If you know the area well navigation is easy enough by sight alone. 81% chance of success.

6: Pattern entry (coming back to land): if you know nothing about flying, good luck here. 2.81% chance this goes remotely correct.

7, Radio calls: 18.76% chance of finding the button to make a radio call, I guess combined with even figuring out where to plug the headset in.

8: final approach: this is probably the most butt clenching, important part of a flight. There’s so much going on and it’s all critical to your survival. Flaps down, speed checks, reversed command flight profile. Best case scenario he comes in way too fast and flies down the whole runway wondering why it won’t land, hopefully adding back the power and doing a go around. Worst case…. 1.293% chance of success.

9: taxi and shutdown: if he taxied successfully before, he’ll do fine this time. Maybe he’ll go faster too with the poo in his pants after landing. Shutting down is also pretty easy in comparison to start up. So 90.782% chance of success.

Overall computation: 2.2956% chance of survival.

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Bergasms@reddit

Heavily depends on the plane a bit. I was thinking about the harmony i fly in, if you just switched all the off switches to on and turned the key to on you have a pretty bloody good chance of getting it running. Because the throttle lock nut will probably be a bit loose you'd notice that go in and the engine start to rev, so push it all the way in and you'd probably get airborne even if you just went across the grass assuming nothing is in your way, as you say they want to fly.

My money is on a stall on climb, and probably a dropped wing, at about 150ft, ending in a probably fatal lithobraking

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Wennie_D@reddit

Ok, c'mon, taxiing isn't THAT hard.

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FloridaIsTooDamnHot@reddit

I use the example of your husband when I describe the Dunning-Kreuger effect.

“All they do is push the wheel up and down and flip switches. I could do that!”

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lce-Shadow@reddit

The likelihood of survivors is an entirely different question.

I think his chances of getting everyone on the ground safely are between slim and none.

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grain_farmer@reddit

I’m pretty sure re I could have taken off and landed a plane when I was 14 years old, this is totally feasible depending on the person.

I played a lot of video games when I was a kid like Air Combat / Ace Combat and use to goof around for hours on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 taking off and landing the concord and Cessna (mostly concord) when I was 11/12 years old.

When I eventually had flying lessons flying was by far the easiest part, most of what you’re learning on top of that is procedures, airmanship and radio/navigation.

Most of what you learn is not actually “pilot handling” / flying the aircraft. Most video games can build that muscle memory for you.

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3minence@reddit

Agree. Anyone that has spent some serious time in a good sim is going to be able to take off and get a feel for the aircraft in the air, and have a pretty decent chance of landing it too.

Flying isn't hard, flying safely and legally is.

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The_Big_Shmear@reddit

Yeah he’d probably be fine, most people can land a plane

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Signal-Albatross820@reddit

I can too. No experience

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3minence@reddit

In what context?

Look, I spent a lot of time in simulators for fun prior to my training (now a Juniour G3 in Australia) and honestly, if you are familiar with the airctaft, I'd say for light GA aircraft you've got a fair shot at landing without prior experience in the real thing. Will you do it well, probably not, but I also think anyone who has spent serious time in a sim will be able to keep the aircfaft serviceable after they've landed.

Now, for larger modern aircraft, I cannot speak to from personal experience, only speculate (others can correct me). If you can find and operate the radio to speak to someone that can talk you through it, I think that person is landing just fine.

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TheUnbound07@reddit

A crash landing is still a landing so technically he's not wrong

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BER001@reddit

When they loose a submarine in the Navy They say its "still on patrol". There are more planes in the sea than submarines in the sky. Your husband will be still on patrol. him and that plane will be in sea.

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damastah93@reddit

The very first time I flew on a plane (c172s) I took off and landed the plane. The landing was horrible and I had 80+ hours in Microsoft simulator.

A commercial plane? Almost impossible unless he has 1000+ hours in MSFS and the landing will also be horrible.

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IvanYakinovski@reddit

They’ve done exactly that before. Some old lady’s husband died inflight and ATC found a pilot to talk her down. Some multi engine plane. She landed with no injuries to herself.

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B1G_Pie@reddit

I'm aware, I'm also aware that a blind squirrel can find an acorn too.

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Character_Order@reddit

Ok I agree that without comms it would be impossible. I’m not familiar with the cockpit of a passenger jet but I assume the PTT is still on the flight controls? And that there are frequencies visible somewhere and that someone would think to start going through those and yelling until they got someone.

Generally though I agree. No comms = no survivable landing. But there are people in here acting like landing a skyhawk without experience is impossible to walk away from.

Anyway, here’s a few hull loss incidents with survivors

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_38

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_358

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirates_Flight_521

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_214

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOT_Polish_Airlines_Flight_16

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rkba260@reddit

The PTT is a rocker switch on the back of the yoke (Boeing), one way is for intercom one is for transmit.

There is a frequency panel, 3 of them... for 3 different radios. All with 2 different screens... and each capable of transmitting on over 760 discrete frequencies... good luck.

Of those accidents...

Air France was an overrun, already on the ground.

Emirates botched a go-around, already on the ground.

Asiana had multiple fatalities.

Happened in Florida a few years ago.

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CarnivoreX@reddit

I think if he had ATC to coach him

I think the guy in the original post assumes he could land without this.

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Character_Order@reddit

Yeah if that’s the case and/or if he’s talking about a jet… no chance

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SoManyEmail@reddit

I bet he could land a Skyhawk. It's not that hard.

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bkpilot@reddit

Exactly. Not sure why everyone here jumps to B737 example. Trainers want to fly, they are very forgiving and built like tanks.

If, on the other hand, he plans to take off from that same runway, fly around for an hour or so at 1000+ feet, then make his way back and land, maybe 20%. I am guessing there, but basing the odds on the pretty good chance he will get distracted/task saturated trying to line up on the runway and crash or get uncomfortable pointing the plane at the ground going 60 MPH, get slow and stall.

grumpycfi@reddit

Well...you could pretty easily prove it with MS Flight Sim or something.

But yeah. I always thought that if I gave someone zero experience the keys to a trainer and even gave them the checklist they couldn't get it going in less time than it'd take me to see someone is trying to steal my airplane. At least that's what I told the TSA once or twice.

Thousands of hours in MSFS and X-Plane are precisely the reason I'm delusional enough to think I could manage it. Are those considered experience?

My only actual time is about 30 minutes in a 2seater extra 300 doing barrel rolls in Vegas, and I sure as hell wasn't the one landing it.

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grumpycfi@reddit

Not real experience but seemed like an easy way to prove the point without killing anything.

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TheMusicArchivist@reddit

I once showed a friend how to fly in MSFS and it was amusing how much they overcorrected everything. I had to tell them to barely move the stick each time or they'd end up thirty degrees off course in both directions.

However, it didn't take me long to get good at landing in MSFS. I think after a few hours' practise the average car driver could probably land a small propellor plane on a runway with everyone on board able to walk away alive. A big jet would be a lot harder because of the speeds involved but after a few hundred hours in MSFS it's probably possible.

he can take off, fly and land a plane without ever even being in a cockpit

Impressive. And here I'm a certificated pilot and I have to be in the cockpit to control the plane at all!

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3rdTK1939@reddit

Easy way to figure it out. Intro flight and tell the instructor exactly that. Have him go totally hands off after ignition. Or, there is a fully functional full motion 737 sim near DC. Lots of retired airline guys work there as your “instructor.” If you are anywhere near the area I highly recommend it in general. But that would be an excellent way to prove him wrong. He can start off in flight and have the instructor talk him down as a controller.

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CanadianRoyalist@reddit

A lot of judgment here without knowing the circumstances.

He could simply be built different.

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BazookoTheClown@reddit

Is he the same guy that thinks he can wrestle a wolf?

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Waste_Cheetah_2358@reddit (OP)

I’ll ask him

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TheSteve1778@reddit

LMAO guarantee you the moment you give him the controls and he realizes the responsibility in his hands he will absolutely freeze

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Waste_Cheetah_2358@reddit (OP)

I 100000% agree

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the_lullaby@reddit

I want to finally prove to him he is absolutely insane.

Why? How would this bring more joy to your relationship? Would you be doing it to make him feel better about himself?

Other than exalting your vanity by 'winning,' what possible benefit could be gained from proving him wrong?

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Waste_Cheetah_2358@reddit (OP)

This post is all for laughs, not with ill intent. Me and him will be laughing together reading all these replies

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Pale-Ad3389@reddit

I found it surprisingly easy if you know the numbers/ speeds that you need plus the several colored markings on the air speed indicator. Their relationship to flying Same throttle setting nose up lose speed nose down gain speed

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OldSecretary1541@reddit

Just take him on a discovery flight lol I went with my husband the instructor let me get on the plane and sit in the back

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autonym@reddit

What is the [likelihood] of this?

I think it's entirely possible that PC simulator experience plus studying could facilitate a successful flight. But it's far from assured.

I want to finally prove to him he is absolutely insane.

Unless he actually intends to try it by himself somehow, it's unclear why you'd need to prove him wrong. In any case, opinions on reddit cannot possibly constitute such proof.

jferments@reddit

Tell him about Colton Harris Moore ("The Barefoot Bandit"). Point out that Moore was only a kid (17 years old) when he stole his first plane, and had trained himself by reading flight manuals, watching DVDs and playing MS Flight Simulator. Tell him that he can do anything he sets his mind to, and that he should follow his dreams. Also tell him he's almost certainly going to die if he actually tries this.

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Puzzled_Mission2321@reddit

I imagine I can fly.

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Dont_crossthestreams@reddit

Anybody can do anything once!

SkyKing …. RIP

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zvaavtre@reddit

Local airport. Take an intro lesson with the local flight school. Easy.

I used to backseat gliders and one time we had a girl who flew model airplanes. She flew the entire flight the first time with some verbal input from me.

FutureInPastTense@reddit

I really wish he had tried to land it. He was nearly out of fuel, so a water ditching was likely his only option by that point. Sure, he might have died anyway. Sure, even if he survived he was facing at least a decade in jail. But if he had, it would’ve been legendary.

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DudleyAndStephens@reddit

He took off and flew a plane. That landing part though, he didn't have a plan for that :-/

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thrfscowaway8610@reddit

Trevor Jacob's next video.

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No-Term-1979@reddit

In the great words of Henry Jones and his son.

Jr. I didnt know you could fly a plane!?!?

Fly? Yes, Land? No

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Occams_AK47@reddit

Are we talking a large passenger jet or a 4 cylinder bug smasher?

Small GA planes, probably. Larger equipment? Doubt it.

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TC3Guy@reddit

It probably depends if he's used a flight simulator before. If he has, somebody were to turn the plane on, and he spent a minute or two familiarizing with the throttle, rudder, and yoke....and there isn't a big crosswing...he probably could take off. Full throttle, keep the nose roughly straight, and a Cessna 172 will practically launch itself! It'd say 90%+.

Landing, however, is another proposition. There's a chance he could do it. , but if he under-powers, and stalls, he'd die. It's say 50-50.

I say this now having 50 hours of flight time and about 175 landings. I do remember my first flight where I 0 plan hours but about a hundred simulator hours. Yes, I had an instructor, the take-off was easy! I'd have landed eventually, but probably would have to have tried a couple of times.

OR, I'm a man and discount everything I say.

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Waste_Cheetah_2358@reddit (OP)

This is exactly the point he makes. He’s used a flight simulator before and thinks that it’s the same thing

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TC3Guy@reddit

You didn't say that he says it's the same thing. It's not that. 100% fidelity and simulates the general sight picture, the sounds, the gauge numbers, etc., but doesn't simulate the feeling of yaw, slip, vertical, etc.

And I'm saying as a person that solo'ed, done 175 take-off and landings, that if the bet was taking off--he'd probably win from simulator experience plus somebody helping him start the plan and showing him how the throttle works. Consider it one opinion from a person that has some experience, but not yet a pilot.

It's the landing part that Microsoft Flight Sim (or the others) is really where that instructor earns their money and turns it from a 50-50 or 90-10 thing into a 99.9+% safe thing.

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DeltaVZerda@reddit

Yup even if a random guy with 5 hours in a simulator could land and survive with a 50% probability, that is totally unacceptable odds for a pilot, and it doesn't detract from the value our training provides. Lots of pilots think they are hot shit for sitting in a cockpit though and the thought that someone could sorta figure it out and get a little lucky is too damaging to their ego so they inflate the impressiveness of their role to the point it should make you scared to fly with them if it's so damn impossible to pull off accurately.

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csmicfool@reddit

I was basically like your husband 2 years ago before my first flight. I got the plane off the ground and back down again, but it was not pretty.

Took almost a year of lessons before my takeoffs and landings were good enough to solo.

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DogmaticConfabulate@reddit

You know.... This Reddit thread is not going to change his mind one little bit.

It sounds like you already know the correct answer. :)

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Secure_Statement_751@reddit

Thats just textbook male confidence, it’s basically a law. You ask any man “you think you can fly that plane?” It could be a C172 or a B777 and they will still say yes. Have I flown anything more than a 172? No. But do I feel like I fly the same airplanes I fix as an A&P? Yeah probably. Taking off is the easy part, good luck landing and walking away though.

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thetylersimpson@reddit

Would he be able to get back on “land” yes! That’s the only guarantee when flying. However it might not be in the same sense he’s thinking

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TOMcatXENO@reddit

Walking away from that landing is a different story

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Floater959@reddit

This is a classic example of the Dunning-Kruger effect. People with low domain knowledge tend to overestimate their ability because they don’t know enough about the subject to realize how little they actually know.

Thinking that you have enough knowledge and skill to operate an aircraft but not the systems knowledge to actually start the thing is actually pretty wild. I’ve known people like this, and they tend to lack self-awareness as a whole.

In a jet, you need to deploy the right flap/slat setting for the weight, CG, weather and thrust setting. Assuming a long, dry runway with no failures, then you’ll fly. Wrong setting = crash, no matter how much you pull back and add thrust.

Those are just two small examples of what makes a takeoff challenging.

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MultiMillionMiler@reddit

Yeah my instructor let me do the takeoff on my 4th lesson, it's easy. You just literally inch the yoke back and don't overcompensate for anything. Maybe he was secretly helping to control the rudder pedals I'm not sure 😆 And it was like 15 mph winds that day too.

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Consistent-Trick2987@reddit

Still have to control it during the take off roll with rudder

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rtd131@reddit

Right rudder

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OCFlier@reddit

It’s going to depend on the plane and the runway Landing is all about getting the plane in the right configuration and right power setting then being patient and having a lot of runway. You can land and will probably now bend the airplane too much.

Takeoff is a much bigger change in state, from stationary to moving quite fast and dealing with the way the airplane responds to those changes. If you don’t know how to steer the plane with your feet, you’re going to be off in the weeds somewhere.

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AlmostHuman0x1@reddit

TL; DR: Depends upon definition. If he’s lucky gets airborne, he will eventually land.

Flying is math. How much math can he do?

I’m guessing he thinks he would simply go to full throttle, rumble down the runway, and pull up near the end of the pavement. He figures he can do a very wide circle then do the reverse of the takeoff.

I mean, maybe with a very forgiving airframe, clear weather, and a lot of luck. Maybe…

Regarding cross country flying - if he can’t math, he will land…somewhere…probably not where he wants to go.

More likely, he lucks out getting on the runway, gets near the end of the runway, hauls back on the yoke, bounces in the air, then quickly comes crashing back down. (Maybe going SPLAT!!! in the process.) Technically, that’s “flying the aircraft”. If he’s lucky, maybe he “falls with style”.

Affectionate-Age9740@reddit

Nice-Camel-2252@reddit

If he reads up on it beforehand he could maybe take off without killing himself if he’s lucky. But landing, no chance.

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qvtx@reddit

I want to finally prove to him he is absolutely insane.

Why would you want to do that?

but said he can take off, fly and land a plane without ever even being in a cockpit.

Is he talking about a 172 or a jet? If a 172 or the like, sure, almost anyone who's not a completely incompetent moron could take off and fly the plane. Sure he'll be mis configured and slip and skid all over the place but trainers are pretty forgiving. Landing he can probably do -- plenty of people with no experience have been talked down safely before -- whether you can reuse the airplane later might be a riskier bet.

On the other hand, I've taken one of my friends up who I couldn't trust to fly straight and level for even 5 seconds. He's one of those people who if you gave them a baseball they would throw it equally poorly with either the right or left hand. Just an uncoordinated boob. Absolutely zero mind-body connection. He goes up solo in anything and that plane is coming down badly and probably in a way that makes the NTSB investigators scratch their heads and say "how the fuck did THAT happen?"

If your husband isn't like my described friend (and very few people are), then he's probably right.

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jackpotairline@reddit

Dr. Jones said it best

Fly, yes. Land, no.

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chromaticgliss@reddit

Which plane? Let's assume something easy to fly.... a 172 assuming perfect weather. Take off? Not very likely, but possible. Fly around? Not very likely, but possible. Land safely? Yeah that's gonna be a no from me dawg.

Theoretically possible? Sure. Likely? Nah, I'd give it a fraction of a fraction of a percent percent chance.

It's not that difficult in a little trainer, but it'd be on par with being able to whip out a full 4 minute song on guitar with no prior music experience. It's just not gonna happen without a baseline level practice/guidance.

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Character_Order@reddit

This is wild. In a skyhawk the average person could absolutely take off and fly straight and level. You literally just push the throttle and go

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CarnivoreX@reddit

.... into the corn field on the left side

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chromaticgliss@reddit

I'm assuming zero knowledge or experience and no guidance. They aren't going to know about yaw effects on takeoff nor rudder usage for things like coordinated turns. Guarantee lot of "average" folks would think they're gas and brake pedals... heck the average person doesn't even know the word "yaw."

Have to remember they'd need to figure everything out on their own in the moment. It's just a recipe for a lot of stupid and dangerous mistakes at every step, even during the easy take off and flying stages.

With a little guidance yeah, it's not hard at all. But by himself with zero experience or knowledge? I'm not betting on it. If he's familiar with the basic ideas from like a sim or casual interest in aviation? Way more likely. But none? Yeah, nah, I'm not making that bet.

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Character_Order@reddit

Yeah alright. You put someone in there who has absolutely zero knowledge, like not even “steer with your feet” level knowledge, then I agree they probably wouldn’t keep it on the runway. But I think you could get into a slyhawk with any guy claiming he could fly, explain a few things while he’s taxing to the runway, then get out and have at it and he could get it in the air. Landing would be rough but he might not die

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limes_huh@reddit

Not so sure about that one to be honest. I have never had a PPL student who could takeoff and fly straight and level without extreme hand holding.

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Character_Order@reddit

Ok maintaining consistent altitude might be a challenge but they could keep it in the air

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chromaticgliss@reddit

Someone with zero experience isn't going to know about takeoff yaw effects or grasp rudder usage in the first place for things like coordinated turns. That's a recipe for an accident.

With a little guidance, yeah it's super easy, but we're talking literally zero knowledge here.

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CarnivoreX@reddit

As a pilot, I would VERY, VERY much like to get him up to 5000ft in a 172, and then "your controls"...... Oh, I would love it so much :D :D

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reidmrdotcom@reddit

I had a student once with hundreds of hours on a decently set up home flight simulator. They were knowledgeable right out of the gate. So I had them do way more than most first flights as I was curious how they’d do if I let them do everything from takeoff to touchdown. They did decent on the takeoff, climb, cruise, and setup for landing. Before touching down they got nervous and gave me the controls, I think somewhere between 100-500 feet above the ground.

So, in this students case, with instruction they could do everything up to the final parts of landing safely. I won’t know if they’d have been able to land it safely. I think they could have been coached to land without us dying, but probably would have damaged the airplane.

There is a video on YouTube of someone letting their friend in a similar situation try to fly and see how they’d do. I don’t remember the full results or the link.

I guess in short, it depends on your friends background. With zero experience in a real or simulated cockpit and no coaching, I think they’d likely have a catastrophic crash.

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nysflyboy@reddit

This all depends on how much studying he did ahead of time once you threw down the challenge. If the rules are he can not do any further studying/youtubing from this moment? His odds are likely zero. (Assuming he is totally unfamilair since he said he does not even know how to "turn it on".).

/u/theamericaninfrance did a nice calculation below, and I think he was very very overly generous/optimistic. And that's based on a 172, possibly the easiest scenario besides perhaps a Ercoupe or something like that with no rudder pedals.

Regardless, I agree with the others here - buy him a discovery flight for his birthday or just for fun. And be sure to mention to the instructor about his bet...

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FutureInPastTense@reddit

I’m a licensed dispatcher, so at the very least I know the lingo. I really think that if it were a perfectly VFR day and I had ATC to help me, I could land and contain the burning wreckage within the runway environment.

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Vee-One-Rotate@reddit

If by landing you mean deploying the parachute on a Cirrus, then yes, technically he’s correct.

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No-Finding-530@reddit

Your husband is a moron.

Find a legit flight simulator you can book. Hell tell a flight school you want to humiliate an idiot and im sure they can help you. Record him. Post it online and shame him.

Normally I dont support bullying but the knowledge required to even get a shitty little cessna off the ground alone as a student takes hours and hours of lessons and touch and goes. So im offended by this ignorance

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stomith@reddit

I smell a ‘dad joke’ in there somewhere. I also 100% believe that I could land a plane without ever having been in a cockpit.

Hahahah. Find someone with a computer and a flight simulator, and let him try. Lots of guys are extremely overconfident.

The takeoff isn't hard, the "hard" part is configuring the airplane for the flight. Route, performance, load, runway. Not to mention all the things we check beforehand. Any monkey can mash throttles and pull back at some point.

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crashfrog05@reddit

It’s not unheard-of for untrained people to have to take control of a small plain after a medical issue disables the pilot. They get talked through the landing procedure by ATC and pilots on the ground.

If you look at these cases they were

All in smaller airplanes, some high performance, but they were smaller airplanes
Either: people who were already pilots but not rated for the airplane they were flying (PPL in a multi turbo prop) Student pilots with an incapacitated instructor Spouses of a pilot who spent a lot of time with the spouse that is a pilot in the airplane
Family members of a pilot who flew a lot and have some experience flying
Friends of the owner who flew a lot in that aircraft And the people above had difficulty doing it.

There hasn’t been someone with no experience at all landing, not saying it’s not possible in a GA airplane but they would have a harder time than the people who have had to do it before.

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misha_jinx@reddit

Having some simulator experience without ever being in an actual airplane is arguably a better experience than sitting next to someone flying and not thinking about it. I’m not sure that this makes any point. I think people with zero experience, whether actual or simulated can land the airplane with someone’s help and guidance from the ground. What the success rate would be? Well, we have a small sample here to draw from, but it’s not zero.

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MassiveBoner911_3@reddit

Maybe a basic Cessna if he was being guided by a pilot from ATA? Now a Boeing 737?

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Anthem00@reddit

Most people believe that because they hear of 81 year old grandmothers who have never flown a plane to land a king air or caravan type of thing. So any guy is going to think they have more knowledge, hand eye coordination, video game acumen that they can fly/land a plane. It’s a common thing among I would say most males.

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Original-Face9423@reddit

Depending how much you wanna pay, you could make a sim and use msf flight sim. Thats probably your cheapest way to test, tho it’s probably not SUPER accurate. I think a lot of flight centers have sims as well (my wife has access to one at her flight center, she’s a pilot not me). That one is probably a little more accurate than msf just based off the tech they have. Other than that, no chance any cfi is letting him land a plane right away. Maybe after 20 or so hours 🤷‍♂️

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fanofairplanes@reddit

What's it like living with an idiot?

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Spud8000@reddit

flight schools have cheap "intro to flying" deals where they let you fly around for an hour trying to get you to sign up. buy him an hour as a present, and let him give it a try!

WickedWings10Pack@reddit

This has got to be rage bait

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nbdevops@reddit

Buy him a discovery flight and warn the CFI in advance.

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Coolgrnmen@reddit

If we are talking about a small plane… MAYBE. There’s basically three controls. Throttle, rudder, and the yolk. One is power and the other two are generally direction. Takeoff is so easy many instructors let you do it in your very first lesson. He’d be fine unless there’s a crosswind and as long as he uses right rudder. If he doesn’t use right rudder, he will probably crash on takeoff.

In the air, the controls are simple and one could get used to it. He’d be able to guide it to the runway and get it down, but probably with damage.

There are a ton of videos out there of student pilots on their solos forgetting some very basic principles of flight that they’ve been trained for. Like the Old Bridge (3N6) crash that was very well documented thanks to the camera setup at the airport. Or the video of the student doing a touch and go and forgetting that right rudder keeps plane going straight and so he ended up on the broadside of a hangar.

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Hahaha. I've done a fair number of highly skilled extreme sports to national levels of competition, including motorcycle racing, and also competitive gaming (video games, hand/eye, 3-d environments), and the first time I got in a GA plane was incredibly eye opening. The taking off, flying around, up down, left right, was pretty easy to figure out...

Then the Instructor started coaching me into the landing phase, and on the base turn I completely brain locked. I literally can't remember the last time that's happened to me, if ever. The ground was coming up, cars, gas stations, buildings, all getting closer and closer and I was like 'I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE FUCK I AM DOING, YOU TAKE OVER'.

I went home and told me wife (who coincidently just soloed tonight) "I don't know if I can do this" and I have *never* said that about a hobby/sport/activity.

I'm a fast learner, and those first few flights were humbling for sure.

So yeah, your husband is deluded.

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sno-blizzard@reddit

I got 500 hours and I'm still surprised everytime I land a plane. IDK who let me do this.

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Aedion@reddit

you should ask this on /r/aviation for fun and see what the avgeeks think.

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greevous00@reddit

There is next to zero % chance he could take off safely (the easy part) much less land safely (the hard part).

There are many very specific things you have to know, and you learn them by flying with an instructor who keeps you from killing yourself while you try over and over again until you learn them.

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VitoRazoR@reddit

uneducated arrogance, big killer

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TheOvercookedFlyer@reddit

I'm a woman and a flight instructor. I've been told that if I can do it, how hard can it be to fly. Well, I enjoy watching their faces when they come to the realisation that indeed, they can't land much less fly an airplane. Grown, sucessful men doing the walk of shame back to the FBO becausd they had to rely on little, old-me to get our Cessna back on the ground.

Some do actually confess and recognize that it is absolutely hard to fly an airplane and I respect that. The dude who tries to blame me that he couldn't flare? Bite me!

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fallingfaster345@reddit

Omg people have really said that to you? “If you can do it, how hard can it be?” Wtaf is wrong with people.

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DubberOrNothing@reddit

That’s hilarious! Some people really do need knocking down a peg or 10. How can one learn if they believe they know everything already.

I already knew a few things about aviation when I started but went in and had the mentality they I knew nothing about flying because I was 0 hour so I didn’t!

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Elios000@reddit

have just try it in flight sim to start... then do it on something like the Pilot Edge network wile dealing with the radios ....

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Fit-Bedroom6590@reddit

It is not a good day when take offs and landings are not equal. One of the two will be the eliminator and ruin this experience for him.

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therin_88@reddit

Probably something like a 70% chance this would end in an inferno, 29% chance he would survive but the plane wouldn't be air worthy anymore, 1% chance he does it properly.

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specialsymbol@reddit

Just tell him you need to turn the key, just like you did in old cars. Easy like that.

Don't try it on a cold day. Good luck!

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x236k@reddit

I’m not a pilot but did a few hundred hours in a sim and I’m moderately confident that if: 1. i fly a specific variant of A320 2. in good weather 3. during the daylight 4. i know where I am 5. I know the airport I attempt landing at

I do what are called "introductory flights" with people of all confidence levels. The over-confident people typically find reality during the take-off roll. Those that continue to under-perform, while maintaining the an excess in confidence, along with other indicators, I generally assume to be on drugs.

Those with a tempered level of confidence generally give the best performance. I will allow them to assist in the take-off and then I will verbally guide them to short final, where it usually becomes quite messy.

I hope this helps.

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Successful_Tap5662@reddit

A geriatric woman landed a plane after her husband died purely by listening to atc.

It’s not beyond possible

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ThirdLegPressure@reddit

Just once lol

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Phillimac16@reddit

Before I was a pilot, sure I thought this. Once I got my PPL, yeah no way...

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JhPPharmaGuy@reddit

I'm an Instrument rated pilot and have been flying for 30 years. There is absolutely NO HARM in letting him believe it. However, there is GRAVE HARM if he ever tries it!!

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3Green1974@reddit

Look, in the absolute strictest sense, yes, I’m sure he can. Thousands of people do it every year. I did it my first time flying a plane even. It’s really not that difficult.

Now, here’s the rest of the story. It will depend on the flight instructor or pilot taking you up for the first time. In my case, a neighbor knew I was interested and he took me up in a Cessna 152. He briefed me on how to do the takeoff and climb. Once we climbed up he took over and navigated to where he was going to take some pictures (he did aerial photography). On the way back he gave me the basics of landing a plane and let me do it. . That was 38 years ago so obviously I was successful.

CompassSwingTX@reddit

The word you’re looking for is delusional

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Astro_Venatas@reddit

Well I’m sure they could make the plane meet the ground. Whether or not the plane will fly again is another question.

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dph8819@reddit

I was at a resort in Mexico recently and overheard a somewhat tipsy guy (STG) at the pool say that he had played enough flight simulator that he could easily get a plane up in the air, but he wasn’t totally convinced about landing.

If you're in SoCal, here's a sim for rent in Anaheim. Tell the instructor of your husband's belief. I'm sure he or she would gladly let your husband find out.

chrishiggins@reddit

in a game, sure. in real life - not a chance. with atc help, maybe he can crash it near an airport.

if he is not at the exact right speed, at the exact right altitude, at the exact right distance from the runway - then he's going to have to adjust engine power and pitch to get back to the exact right spot.

the normal pilots up front have been practicing those skills for hundreds of hours.. focusing on how to strike the right balance to nudge the plane into the right place.

over compensate - and it gets bad real quick.

too slow, you drop too fast and crash

too fast and you miss the runway, and if you aren't ready to go back around - then you crash.

too far left or right and you crash the plane.

what else does he think he is good at ?

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Legitimate-Watch-670@reddit

Flight instructor opinion:

In a small trainer airplane with no assistance: About 50/50 he can get it into the air and to a safe altitude to maneuver without damage. Maybe 30% he can get it on the ground without death or serious injury. 20% chance at best he gets it down with minor damage. 10% chance or less the plane is undamaged and stays on the runway. That's all assuming perfect clean weather and no technical issues, etc.

A regional jet or larger: Not a chance. I had about 1300 hours and was a flight instructor, and just barely made a safe landing with guidance from an instructor in an airline level simulator.

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CannonAFB_unofficial@reddit

Put him in my big gassy girl. In the KC-135 you have 18” of clearance before you scrape a pod. It’s notoriously difficult to land with the CFM-56s. Zero chance he puts it down and walks away from it.

Same for takeoff and cruise. Zero experience? He doesn’t even know what trim is. That will be the first thing to kill him on takeoff in a jet.

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ltcterry@reddit

Zero.

Even actual pilots crash perfectly good airplanes into the ground and die.

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Rare-Extension-6023@reddit

take out a good policy on him lol

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mutarjim@reddit

What was it launchpad said? Something like "every plane lands. Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, any where you can reuse the plane is a great one."

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GuessEmergency8211@reddit

I used to always think this way too. After beginning flight training, I was quickly humbled. Now I’m a CFI teaching other people who think their 50 hours on MSFS give them the confidence and ability land a plane no prob, and I enjoy seeing how quickly that changes. It’s harder than people think.

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Chewyarms@reddit

20 hour student. I played lots of flight sim games before and I still would of crashed with out any prior training.

scarpozzi@reddit

It's much easier to fly a plane than land one or navigate without a GPS with not experience.

The key to landing and taking off is to know the key speeds a particular aircraft can take off, maneuver, and land. If it's a faster plane, speed management and the ability to process things quickly is probably the biggest leap. The danger of approaching too fast is floating down the runway and running out of asphalt before you can stop. Too slow and you'll stall/crash.

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He was a simmer!

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Guysmiley777@reddit

Live free Sky King!!!

✅ Take off

✅ Fly

proudlyhumble@reddit

Make sure he has his will completed

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sambull@reddit

there's a famous video of pretty much this exact situation.

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tristan-chord@reddit

I was someone who was all into flight sims before actually starting to fly. I knew the startup sequence by heart before going to my first lesson. I was a fast learner and soloed at 12 hours and passed my exam at 45. Not bragging, just saying that as an amateur pilot I’m a pretty good one. I couldn’t possibly have landed it in my first couple of tries, that’s with hundreds of hours in decent home built sims.

Your husband is either a genius or an idiot for thinking that he could.

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What is the likely hood of this? I want to finally prove to him he is absolutely insane.

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