You guys who tried in a sim and landed the plane had an instructor with you right ?
That’s hilarious. Well, that will teach them to get an 8130-3 for all the bolts that go into the floor 
You guys who tried in a sim and landed the plane had an instructor with you right ?
I am sure that’s true for all but keen simmers. Otherwise you would not even find how to start it up.
I would imagine that almost any low-time pilot could get an airliner from the cruise to a runway with the appropriate advice from ATC. There won’t be many who could take an airliner from A to B, safely and there will be none who could recover from an engine fire/decompression/cargo fire mid-Atlantic while keeping everyone alive.
You can follow a set of simple rules but sooner or later, judgement will be required and then experience is a necessity.
Shanwick wrote:
and then experience is a necessity.
….rather than paperwork?
I think that was the thrust of the original question – if one had the knowledge, currency and the experience then did the fake papers actually make a jot of difference?
Absolutely. For me the Pilots are there to save my bacon when things are going wrong.
When they are going right no one needs to be in the cockpit ;-)
I’ve had a Pro Sim session in the 747.
I said to the the instructor that it was almost a waste of time teaching me to fly it as I’d have forgotten everything by the time I got home.
Just give it to me at 10,000ft 30 miles out and let’s see what happens.
After 2 goes of that I said let’s turn off every aid we can and see what happens.
’You’ll need something’ auto throttle, trim, braking etc. Nah, let’s have some fun me says.
Well if I had 300 people depending on me I don’t think I could have kept my cool, but all 3 landings wouldn’t have required an inspection of the airframe.
Shame I can’t say the same about my SEP landings ;-)
I just hope if I have a numpty at the pointy end on CAT, it’s on a day where it all works out.
This article says
It does sound like they bought the exam passes
Peter wrote:
I am pretty sure you would not because you would not work out how to config a CAT3 landing.
skydriller wrote:
But only if someone was taking you step by step through how to program the autopilot correctly…right? Otherwise…
Yes, of course! I took that as a given. I do believe I’d be able to call up ATC without help.
Two things to differentiate:
1) the hobby pilot flight simmer dream of both airline pilots eating fish and dying inflight
and
2) correctly operating an airliner under industrial flight ops day in day out with 99,9% dispatch quote
Snoopy wrote:
Two things to differentiate:1) the hobby pilot flight simmer dream of both airline pilots eating fish and dying inflight
and
2) correctly operating an airliner under industrial flight ops day in day out with 99,9% dispatch quote
You could argue the same about flying any SEP or even military jets: blue sky VFR, OCAS and long 5km runway you don’t need more than 3h to learn how to fly solo one-off and land safely trying to do that many times in tight places/conditions will show various “management and judgement issues” 
In the golden age of aviation 60-80, many airline pilots had fake papers, that was before cockpit automation (procedures were probably simpler?), some had extensive flying skills from previous military experience (e.g. WW2, Vietnam), but most notable cases were just fans of Frank Abagnale Jr and they are coming from nowhere near aviation, not even flight simulator
Obviously there were isolated cases to fade into stats rather than 1/3 of the crew of a flag carrier and national scandal…
