Airways and runs his own aviation safety consulting company, Safety Operating Systems. John Cox is a retired airline captain with U.S. We may one day have automation allowing airliners to fly without pilots, but that day is a long way off.
Professional pilots are skilled individuals who land aircraft in many different conditions safely. I am not sure I would characterize it as being like Apollo 13. survey asked first officers to identify the best captains that they had flown with and to identify the characteristics that earned them that distinction. While there are some autolandings, most landings are made by pilots manually. None of these autopilots can be programed from the ground, furthermore there are far too many variables that happen during a flight to even consider flying without a pilot. Q: Hello Captain, do all trans-Atlantic flights have an "auto pilot" and "auto landing function?" Does this mean that technically we don't really need a pilot/s? Under what circumstances will someone need to be there at the pilot seat to manually land the plane like in Apollo 13?Ī: To my knowledge all airplanes flying trans-Atlantic have autopilots. Driving is one of the more dangerous activities we do on a regular basis. This is simulator training using line-flying skills in addition to handling abnormal situations in real-life scenarios that test a pilot's judgment, communication and management skills. One consideration hopefully to help calm your nerves. However, unquestionably flying is more complicated and demanding than driving. This experience makes the complex tasks required of them "easy" most of the time. Professional pilots are very experienced in flying their aircraft. During take-off, climb, descent and landing, pilots are much more directly involved requiring more concentration than driving. However, the pilots must carefully monitor the flight path to ensure it is correct. An airplane's autoflight system (autopilot and autothrottle) can maintain the proper speed and fly the proper path.
An automobile may have cruise control, but the driver has to make constant corrections to keep it in the proper lane.
Unlike a car, an airplane in cruise flight does not require constant minor corrections if it is on autopilot. - Question: Is it true that flying a commercial jet, aside from all of the many checks you need to constantly be watching, is as easy or even easier than driving a car? I've heard this a few times from people trying to calm my nerves.Īnswer: The comments made by the people you refer to are a bit misleading.