Don't Care if I Ever Fly Again...Computers Fly the Planes, And Nightmares Result!

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
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USA
Was just listening to 20/20 on TV, talking about pilots and planes. It seems like for a 7 hour flight, a pilot may spend 3 minutes pressing a few buttons, and the rest of the flight is controlled completely by the computer. They were saying that that's the cause of so many planes landing in the wrong airports lately, and accidents resulting when the runways are not ready or capable of handling that plane.

They said if the pilot does have to do some flying in an emergency, a lot of them are rusty or have little hands-on experience, which also causes some dangerous problems. I rarely fly, and I don't care if I never do again, hopefully I won't have to.

Did you ever experience a bad situation on a plane flight?
 

I used to socialise with a lot of pilots when I worked in Europe. One 747 pilot corfirmed that he didn't really have to do a lot of actual flying, but he often switched off the auto-pilot and flew the plane just to relieve the boredom. His wife referred to him as just a 'bloody taxi driver'.

On another occasion, my wife noticed a pilot who was quite short and wondered if the planes had adjustable seats. I asked the 747 pilot about this and he said 'yes' and that it was very important to adjust the pilot's seat properly. To assist,there were marks on the windscreen so that you could get the proper perspective when landing.
If you normally flew a 747 and then flew a smaller plane, you could easily overshoot the runway, conversely, if you normally flew a small plane and them flew a 747, you could land very heavily.

However, knowing the way that a lot of pilots drink- I'll happily trust a computer!!
 
Will computers or humans fly airliners in formation?

"One day "intelligent" passenger aircraft will cruise across oceans in low-drag, energy-saving formations, like flocks of geese. So said European plane-maker Airbus at its annual technology look-ahead conference last night. It's a striking idea that media outlets lapped up."

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/09/will-computers-or-humans-fly-a.html

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Capt Lightning said:
I used to socialise with a lot of pilots when I worked in Europe. One 747 pilot corfirmed that he didn't really have to do a lot of actual flying, but he often switched off the auto-pilot and flew the plane just to relieve the boredom. His wife referred to him as just a 'bloody taxi driver'.

On another occasion, my wife noticed a pilot who was quite short and wondered if the planes had adjustable seats. I asked the 747 pilot about this and he said 'yes' and that it was very important to adjust the pilot's seat properly. To assist,there were marks on the windscreen so that you could get the proper perspective when landing.
If you normally flew a 747 and then flew a smaller plane, you could easily overshoot the runway, conversely, if you normally flew a small plane and them flew a 747, you could land very heavily.

However, knowing the way that a lot of pilots drink- I'll happily trust a computer!!
Click to expand...

I'll trust the computer over the pilots I know. The ones I know are all heavy drinkers.
 
Worst flight I ever had was over Germany. I was flying the plane myself; came back with 35 flak holes in the airplane.

I wouldn't hesitate for one second to board a flight today, despite all the bad things I've heard here today. You're more likely

to be maimed or worse in your own car on the highway than on an airliner.
 
I refuse to fly now. First experience was exciting continued to fly through my early 20's. My fear started to develop back in '67 on a return flight from Germany after military service. Came into SC with a load of servicemen, one who had been on a flight crew for 20 years. He told us about every change or adjustment that were being made. Plane was rocking back and forth tipping wings on decend, He freaked, so did we. Found out the pilot had been in the air 14 hours solid.

Next problem same trip landing in SLC with a low overcast, pilot had to trottle up to clear a mountain top after dropping out of cloud cover, could see details of the trees on top. Decided not to fly for the next 23 years.

I needed to fly to Seattle for a training class. After decending pilot came on said we were having a problem and needed to do a little circling. Found out from a steward that there was problem with the hydralics. Affecting landing gear. Needed to buzz the tower for visual verification that the landing gear was down. Again pilot came on and said we will circle for awhile and when we land 'Don't be alarmed with the emergency vehicles lining the runway, it's normal'. After an hour and 45 minutes to dump fuel we landed there were news crews interviewing passengers and we found out they had stopped all incoming and outgoing traffic, planning for a crash landing, there were fire trucks, ambulances and foam trucks waiting for us. Return flight was the same plane (I noted the numbers on the original flight). Return was uneventful but I had made up my mind never again, gambler at heart and I figured I had pushed the deck as far as I wanted. Haven't flown in almost 25 years.
 

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