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Flying "Outside the Box"
By John Franco (23 December 2006)
But first, I'd like to say that I do have real world aspirations to be a pilot. I am currently in the college application process to a community college in Connecticut, my home state, which will get me a degree for flying in which I would jumpstart my career. I do have 35 hours real world experience in Piper Warriors out of Tweed Airport in New Haven, Connecticut and I did solo on my 16th birthday back in December 2004. Sadly, I've been out of real world training since February 2005.
Anyways, throughout the years of my life, I have had dreams of flying airplanes in emergencies. In some of these cases, I've put myself in the shoes of a recent airplane movie that I've seen. In other dreams, the airplane in question would be flying along, and some problem would develop. The flight attendant would make an announcement, and ask "Will anyone with any flying experience please step forward." I would then graciously volunteer, tell the flight attendant that I've had 2000 hours of computer simulator time, and my real world experiences. In one of those dreams, I took the controls of an ATR 42 and landed at Oxford Airport in Connecticut. But the second I stepped out of the airplane, I was getting yelled at by airport workers. In another dream, I was flying along the Connecticut shore headed towards New London out of New Haven, and my flight instructor had a heart attack. I managed to land the thing near a state park, but ended up killing my flight instructor in the process. (Shhhhh!)
Now I'm headed back to real life again.
A few years ago, I was traveling with my Civil Air Patrol Squadron to Stewart ANGB in New York. We were to meet up with the squadron from Danbury, CT and have a fun C-5 Day of tours and simulator experience. I got to watch some of my fellow cadets wrestle the C-5 under the George Washington Bridge and skim the Hudson River. When it was my turn, I chose to do a landing at Kennedy on 31L in standard conditions. For anyone who hasn't been in a full motion simulator, the throttles and control column are heavy as bricks and it takes a lot of arm strength to move them. But any time that you climb or descend, you sure can feel it. Turns out that I landed almost perfect (I say that because I was doing mini S-turns on final to line her up).
And for once more, it's back to the movies.
I saw a movie called Final Approach in which the pilots became unconscious. A 12 year old kid with 1000 hours on a 777 in a home flight simulator landed the airplane manually. Yes he did have to go around once, and had trouble reaching the brakes, but he did it. And in Hollywood fashion, the plane had to be low on fuel and everyone was worried (I hate that part).
In conclusion, if I were ever confronted with a similar situation at 37000 feet, I would offer to help, and see what happens. If I were thrown into a situation like that, I would first take a minute to scan the cockpit for the essentials, and use the proper resources to get all parties aboard down safely.
Link to my previous article:
That's all for now and happy flying.
John Franco
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