Peter wrote:
the lawyer doesn’t actually need to remember the stuff he did in his study, years ago.
The important thing — in all activities, including flying — is knowing that there is something to remember so that you know that you can/need to look it up. That’s is closely related to the Dunning-Kruger effect.
I’m pretty sure I would be able to get an airliner on the ground using the autopilot.
I am pretty sure you would not 
because you would not work out how to config a CAT3 landing. I looked into this a while ago. If correctly set up earlier on, every landing is CAT3 so the plane will land if you do nothing (Easyjet) but you need to know how to do that.
It’s easier to set-up a jet for a CAT 3 landing than land it manually for the first time. Just inform ATC about your intentions.
I think you are expecting weather to be CAVOK all the time. Could you land a jet without previous experience when the cloud base is eg 1000’ ?
Airborne_Again wrote:
I’m pretty sure I would be able to get an airliner on the ground using the autopilot. I don’t expect to pull off a manual landing successfully.
But only if someone was taking you step by step through how to program the autopilot correctly…right? 
Otherwise…
Thread drift:
Who here has briefed a Wife/GF on what to do should you keel over? I have spent time teaching my GF the basics such that I am pretty sure she would know how to make calls on the radio (mayday) and how to fly so as to be able to point the aeroplane at the right end of a very big runway at a big airport then chop the power…I reckon there would be a pretty good chance of her walking away.
Presumably those that fly Cirrus have taught them to chop power and pull the big red handle…
Regards, SD..
Widerøe fairly recently bought some Embraer 190. They have only been flowing Dash 8 for the last 20-30 years. I know one of the pilots who transitioned to the Embraer. It took several weeks, couple of months? of training, even though he had been flowing Dash 8 for years.
I guess they must be doing something in that training. It’s a difference between “able to land” and being 100% in control in all thinkable situations I would think. It’s easier for us GA pilots where a good landing is a landing you can walk away from
We used to hook up our ATC simulators with two or three full flight sims and did mutual emergency / unusual incidents training during the first two hours of the session. When we were done the ATC crews often had the chance to sit and watch the flight crews sweat in the full flight simulator´s jumpseats for the second part of the training. VERY interesting! When all items were ticked many crews were nice enough to have us take the front right seat and try it ourselves. I did not crash any of the sims, although some landings were not very smooth. I would say the flying part is manageable (i.e. you struggle, but you don´t destroy the airplane), but if you don´t have a clue about the avionics and systems it won´t be easy. If you don´t know anything about flying you will probably not have a chance.
Peter wrote:
Many years ago I asked a lawyer how long I would have to work in his office before I could completely successfully impersonate a solicitor. He reckoned I could do it in 1 year. I suspect this is because most work is routine and repetitive, and the special cases get looked up in reference books (probably in closed forums, these days ) so the lawyer doesn’t actually need to remember the stuff he did in his study, years ago. Actually the special cases are often done badly, which is why if you need an expert you need to pick an expert
Different times maybe but Frank Abagnale managed to do all of these things and almost get away with it!
A good home sim can be very realistic though. But then I have no idea about what a TR course is like in terms of preparing you for turning up at the airline.
Isn’t there a sim check before you get in a RHS?
Somehow I think there must be more to this story. I mean complicity at multiple levels in the airline. For example, taking that FTO fake exam marketing example, one of their employees was supposedly sitting the exams, so lots of other people had to be “in” on this. Not just the invigilator (the exam room supervisor) but the whole management. And the money would have to be divided up among those who knew, so everybody was assured of silence. Then you need to watch the money trail; if any past “customer” gets caught, gets prosecuted, and paid by a bank transfer… Similarly in this current situation; for 1 in 3 to be “fake” in some way, lots of people must have known. But if the top people also had cupboards full of skeletons, they would have kept quiet.
I believe – not sure; it’s a while since I saw the film, and I did watch one of the long pep talks he has on YT – that Frank Abagnale never actually flew the plane. Didn’t he just get loads of free flights, jump seat rides, etc (and probably cabin crew ) by pretending to be a pilot?
I don’t think I would mess about trying to set up an autoland.
I’d be pretty comfortable with operating the autopilot in ALT/HDG modes to get near the airport, and then I’m sure with the odd bit of help over the radio I could dial in the ILS (assuming it is something where it’s quite manual – one can just enter the frequency, turn the course pointer to the runway heading and get the ILS indicators displayed – if the approach needed to be loaded in the FMS I would struggle).
Have the autopilot in approach mode take it down to minimums then disengage and land manually. It might not be the best touchdown but I don’t think anyone would get hurt and you’d probably even be able to use the aeroplane again.
Peter wrote:
I believe – not sure; it’s a while since I saw the film, and I did watch one of the long pep talks he has on YT – that Frank Abagnale never actually flew the plane. Didn’t he just get loads of free flights, jump seat rides, etc (and probably cabin crew ) by pretending to be a pilot?
This was my understanding. I don’t believe he actually flew – he just wore the uniform, travelled around on the airlines and cashed the forged payroll cheques.
