Have you ever wondered what you would do if you were in the air and the airline pilot passed out? If there is no way to fly the aircraft, your safety may depend on only a few important decisions. Your landing will probably be guided by someone on the radio, but this review will help you know what to expect. Such scenarios are often seen in films and television shows, but in the real world, untrained people would not have to land a big plane. But with some basic skills and advice from air traffic controllers, it's possible.

Steps

Part 1

Sit in the captain's chair. The captain usually sits in the left seat, where all the "levers" of aircraft control are concentrated (especially for light single-seat aircraft engines). Fasten your seat belt and shoulder strap, if equipped. Almost all planes have dual controls and you can successfully land the plane while seated in either direction. Do not touch the controls yourself! This will most likely be handled by the autopilot. Leave the control to him.

• Make sure the unconscious pilot is not leaning on the control rudder (equivalent to an aircraft steering wheel). Some aircraft may have a side rudder that is located to the left of the captain's seat.

1. Take a break. You are likely to be stressed out by sensory overload and the gravity of the situation. Proper breathing will help you focus. Take slow, deep breaths to control your body.

   Level the plane. If the plane rises or falls noticeably, you need to carefully align the horizon line with the help of an external guide. Finally, all the skills gained from video games can come in handy!

   • Find the artificial horizon. Sometimes it is also called an artificial horizon. It consists of a miniature set of "wings" and an image of the horizon. The top is blue (sky) and the bottom is brown. On some complex aircraft, the indicator is shown on a display in front of the pilot. On older aircraft, it is in the center of the top row of instruments. On modern airliners, the Primary Flight Data Display (PFD) will be right in front of you. Important information is displayed here, such as indicated airspeed (IAS) in knots, ground speed (GS) in knots, altitude in feet, and titles. It also displays information about whether the autopilot is on. This is usually referred to as AP or CMD.
   • Adjust movement (altitude or descent) and roll (turn) if necessary. Miniature wings should be flush with the artificial horizon. If they are already set in this position, do not touch the controls, proceed to the next step. If you need to level the plane, pull the handlebars towards you to raise the nose of the plane or push forward to lower the nose. You can change roll (steering) by turning the steering wheel left or right to turn on the desired direction. At the same time, back pressure must be applied to the rudder to keep the aircraft from losing altitude.

2. Turn on autopilot. If you were trying to correct your flight path, the autopilot was probably disabled. Turn it on by pressing the button "Autopilot" or "AUTO FLIGHT", "AFN" or "AP" or something like that. On commercial aircraft, the autopilot button is located in the center of the display so that both pilots can easily reach it.

   • Only if these actions make the aircraft not work as you want, disable the autopilot by pressing all the buttons on the steering wheel (which will probably include the autopilot disable button). Usually, The best way make the plane fly normally - don't touch the controls. The autopilot is designed to allow the majority of non-pilots to maintain control of the plane.

Part 2

1. Get help on the radio. Look for the handheld microphone, which is usually located to the left of the pilot's seat just below the side window, and use it as a CB radio. Find a microphone or take the pilot's headset, press and hold the button, and repeat "May Day" three times followed by brief description your emergency (unconscious pilot, etc.). Don't forget to release the button to hear the answer. The airport air traffic controller will help you control the plane and land it safely. Listen carefully and answer controllers' questions to the best of your ability so they can help you to the best of your ability.

   Use the aircraft's call sign when you speak to the controller. The call sign of the aircraft is on the panel (unfortunately it does not have a standard position, but the call sign must be somewhere on the panel). Callsigns for aircraft registered in the US begin with the letter "N" (eg N12345). On the radio, the letter "N" can be confused with other letters, so you need to say, for example, "November". Calling will give you a clear location of the aircraft, as well as give the controllers important information about the aircraft so they can help you land it.

   • If you are on a commercial aircraft (aircraft operated by airlines such as United, American, USA Airways, etc.), the aircraft does not need to be referred to by its "N". On the contrary, you need to give his call sign or flight number. Sometimes pilots can put a note on the control panel to remember this information. You can ask the flight attendant what flight number this plane has. When calling by radio, say the airline name followed by the flight number. If the flight number is 123 and you are flying with United, your call sign will be "United 1-2-3". Don't read the numbers like a normal number, but say "United one hundred twenty-three".

2. Maintain a safe speed. Look at the speed indicator (commonly referred to as ASI, airspeed or knots), which is usually located towards the top left of the control panel, and watch your speed. The speed can be displayed either in MPH or in knots (they are similar). The speed of a small 2-seat aircraft should not be less than 70 knots, a large one should not be less than 180 knots. Ultimately, just make sure the "green" light is on for normal flight until you radio the controller.

   • If the airspeed starts to pick up and you haven't touched the throttle, you're probably flying down, so you should gently adjust the yoke. If your airspeed is slowing down, gently push your nose back to increase speed. Do not let the aircraft fly too slowly, especially near the ground. This can lead to the fact that the engine stalls (the wing will no longer rise).

3. Start your descent. The controller will inform you about the landing procedure and direct you to a safe place for landing. You will most likely be assigned a runway at the airport, but on rare occasions you may need to land in a field or on a road. If you must land and cannot get to the airport, avoid areas with power lines, trees, or other obstructions.

4. Proceed to boarding. You will work with various resistances (bars and flaps next to the throttles) to slow down the speed of the aircraft without losing balance. Lower the chassis down if they are retractable. If the mechanism works, then you do not need to do anything. The gear knob (the end of the knob is shaped like a tire) is usually only on the right side of the center console, slightly above where the co-pilot's knee should be. If you need to land on water, leave the landing gear up.

   • Before landing, you will have to raise the nose of the aircraft and land on the so-called "pillow", touching the ground with the main wheels. The "cushion" is formed using a 5-7 degree angle in small aircraft, and in some larger aircraft, it can mean lifting the nose of the aircraft up to 15 degrees.
   • When flying a large commercial aircraft, activate reverse thrust if it has it. On Boeing type aircraft, there are bars behind the throttle. Pull on them and the thrust will be directed forward, which will help stop the plane. If all else fails, pull the throttle as quickly as possible.
   • Reduce power to idle move by pulling the throttle towards you until you see a sign that says "out of service". This black lever is usually located between the pilot and co-pilot.
   • Carefully press the brakes on the pedal above. Use enough pressure to stop the plane without skidding. The pedals themselves are used in order to steer the aircraft towards the ground, so it is not necessary to use them unless the aircraft is deviating from the runway.
5. Pay attention to your choice of landing sites. Large aircraft need a longer run. Also, make sure there are few or no obstructions around the seat (power lines, buildings, trees, etc.). You can also land the plane on a large highway, but only if there are no obstacles.
6. While all of the above tips are very good (and may seem complete), the most important thing to remember is that the plane must fly! Even experienced pilots, when faced with an emergency, focus their attention on one or two things, whether it be airspeed or landing site or radio communication. But they completely forget that you just need to fly, and this leads to disastrous results. Keep the plane in the air. While the plane is in the air, you can find time for everything else.

Production novel genius Arthur Hailey has a book, Runway 08, about how plane pilots ate low-quality food and passed out. As a result, the passenger had to land the plane. To say that such a situation is absolutely impossible is impossible. So, for example, in 2005, a Cypriot Boeing crashed near Athens, in which depressurization occurred after takeoff. The pilots lost consciousness, and the uncontrolled aircraft spent several hours in the air, after which it crashed. Yes, and many thought during the flight: “What if the pilots die / fall asleep / jump out of the plane, and I will have to land this colossus myself?”.

Recently, in a number of Russian blogs there was a link to the English-language site " The art of manliness", where the topic "how to land a plane if something happened to the pilot" was also touched upon. We decided that our traveling readers could use the ability to land a plane too. Therefore, before reading this article, print it out first and never forget to take the printout with you on your flight. And remember - landing a plane is not that difficult, just follow the simple rules and pull yourself together! Panic is the main enemy in everything!

Aircraft control

Entering the cockpit, if possible, take a seat located on the left. Usually this is the captain's seat of the aircraft, and from this place access to some of the functions that we will need to land the aircraft is much more convenient. So, once you're in the captain's chair, take a deep breath and see if the plane is nodding (you can see more ground than sky), if the nose is up too high, if the aircraft is turning, etc. If everything is in order and the plane flies straight, then do not touch anything, the autopilot is on. If there is a clear deviation, grab the yoke to level the plane. But do not make any sudden movements, do everything smoothly. The control is the same as on simulators in console games - the steering wheel away from you, so that the plane goes down, the steering wheel towards you, so that the plane gains altitude. Or left / right, respectively, to turn left or right.

If you are flying in the clouds and there is no way to navigate in space, then use the spatial position indicator, or, in other words, the artificial horizon. This device shows the position of the aircraft relative to the earth and sky. The figure in the center in the form of the letter "W" represents the wings of the aircraft, brown represents the ground, and blue represents the sky. So, if you see half brown, half blue, then you are flying straight (along the horizon). If the instrument readings are different, then it is necessary to level the aircraft using the control rudder, i.e. steering wheel. And try to avoid the towers of shopping centers, they can interfere with the successful landing of the plane.

Send a distress signal

Once you have taken control of the aircraft, the next step is to contact air traffic control to explain the situation and ask for assistance. Most aircraft have a button to switch communication with the control room right on the helm, where the thumb is usually located. But the catch is that the button to turn off the autopilot is in the same place - on the steering wheel. Without certain knowledge of the location of the controls of an aircraft of a certain brand, it is better not to touch anything on the helm. A safer alternative is to use a portable radio, which is located to the left of the pilot's seat just below the window. It's easy to use - press the button to speak and release to listen. Try to make a radio request on the frequency tuned to the radio. Press the button and say "SOS" or "Mayday", identify yourself and explain what happened. Don't worry about radio etiquette, after all there is an emergency on board. If you are flying over a foreign country, use English language, all dispatchers own it. Tell the dispatcher that the pilots are kirdyck and you don't know how to fly the plane. To hear the answer, do not forget to release the button.

If suddenly there is no answer on the tuned frequency, reconfigure the receiver to the VHF (VHF) frequency of 121.5 MHz - this frequency is constantly monitored by rescue services. The frequency setting panel is usually located on the instrument panel between the captain's and co-pilot's seats, it may be directly opposite the captain's seat.

1. Airlines always make sure that fuel consumption is kept to a minimum. Pilots in case of unforeseen circumstances (bad flight conditions) are forced to land at alternative airfields, not only because of a lack of fuel, but also in order not to overuse it, even if there is one in the tanks.

2. Sometimes pilots don't even have time for food and have to delay their flight just for a quick bite to eat.

3. Pilots will never tell passengers that something unforeseen has happened on board until the situation is absolutely irreversible.

4. Movies often show how the plane delays the departure for several minutes in order to wait for one latecomer. In reality, this does not happen.

5. According to the regulations, the pilot can be at the helm for up to 16 hours without a break.

6. For American pilots, the most "unloved" airports are Reagan International and John Wayne in California. They have very short runways, which is why it is extremely rare to land a plane with sufficient softness. The second one is especially disliked due to the fact that many large mansions were built on the approach to it, the owners of which are big shots and really don’t like noise, so you have to put the plane into the “ballistic flight” mode, reducing the noise of the turbines, which significantly increases the risk during takeoff and landing.

7. It often happens that the plane has to fly from point A to point B, but the takeoff is delayed due to meteorological reasons. At the same time, at point A, the weather is fine, and some passengers call B and find out that the weather is also good there. Some then think that this is some kind of conspiracy of pilots, but in fact the flight is delayed due to the fact that there is a large thunderhead on the way between A and B, despite the fact that both C, A and B are good weather.

8. One of the most important indicators of pilot skill is landing skill. If you want to say something nice to the pilots, thank them for a good landing.

9. The air in the cabin is not dirty, as some passengers think. Some of it is recirculated to reduce moisture, and then passed through special filters, such as those found in hospital operating rooms. The air in an airplane is better and cleaner than in most buildings on earth.

10. Flight times for some flights are rounded up to improve the overall picture and reduce delays. Because of this, for a flight of 1 hour 45 minutes, a duration of 2 hours is indicated, which gives 15 “safety” minutes.

11. If you see that the stewards on the plane take their seats, this is an alarming sign for passengers. Most likely, there is a lot of turbulence along the route.

12. In aviation terminology, the concept of "water landing" does not exist. This is called "falling into the ocean".

13. Many passengers are horrified when the plane hits a zone of turbulence and begins to shake, and the wings bend as if they were made of paper. In fact, very rarely turbulence leads to disasters, and pilots try to avoid getting into such a zone, primarily in order not to unnerve passengers.

14. Many pilots in flight survived a lightning strike on the liner. Passengers hear a roar, see a flash, and .... nothing, let's move on. Aircraft are designed in such a way that a lightning strike in the vast majority of cases does not disable them.

15. As soon as the “fasten seat belts” sign turns off, many passengers immediately unfasten them, believing that this is normal. However, when flying at a speed of 800 kilometers per hour, hitting the plane even in a small air pocket will cause them to knock their heads against the ceiling well.

16. If you're going to kick back your seat and take a nap, be sure to check what's going on in the back. Every day, hundreds and hundreds of laptops break down due to the fact that the passenger sitting in front abruptly reclines the seat, which breaks the computer in the lap of the person sitting behind.

17. There is no safest place to sit on an airplane. In some incidents, those sitting in front die, in others, those sitting in the back.

The softest spot is usually near the wings. The most "shaking" is behind the cabin. The plane behaves like a huge swing suspended by the wings, so it is at the point of their attachment in the cabin that the pitching is minimal.

18. For the most nervous passengers, it is preferable to take off early in the morning. After the heated ground causes the formation of ascending air currents, which are felt during the flight. There is also an increased chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.

19. Pilots and stewards don't take kindly to laptops on their laps. The reason for this is not electromagnetic interference, as flight control authorities claim, but the danger of shaking or getting into uncontrolled air currents. No one wants to get hit in the head with such a projectile.

20. The requirement to take off your headphones at certain points in the flight is also not due to the pilots' harmfulness and their desire to cause you more inconvenience - so they just want you to listen to announcements in the cabin.

21. If it's cold in the cabin, contact the flight attendant. Usually they are the ones who try to set the minimum comfortable air temperature.

22. If possible, wear sturdy shoes for the flight, not beach slippers - in case of danger, it will be easier for you to leave the plane shod, and not barefoot on a burning floor strewn with sharp fragments.

23. The air in the cabin moves in the direction from the front to the rear of the cabin. If you want to breathe the cleanest air possible, sit closer to the front of the cabin. In the back, the air is usually warmer - it has already warmed up from the breath of those sitting in front and from their warmth.

24. People believe that an airplane can fly on its own, on autopilot, for almost the entire flight. It's true - 70-80% of the flight time the ship flies on autopilot. For reliability on commercial airliners, all autopilot systems are duplicated at least twice.

25. A pilot will never tell passengers, "We are facing a large thunderstorm front," he will say, "There is some cloudiness ahead." Instead of "One of our engines is out of order," he will most likely say nothing, since most passengers will not hear the difference in engine noise.

26. Despite the fact that pilots are prohibited from doing anything other than flying the aircraft on the job, in a two-hour flight, an airliner flies on autopilot for an hour and a half, and this time needs to be occupied with something. So pilots read the newspaper, watch DVDs, and do other odd jobs.

Planes are getting smarter every day. If earlier the autopilot was considered the height of perfection in aviation, in relatively calm weather conditions, safely and reliably escorting the aircraft from point A to point B, then modern liners can boast of systems that allow them to take off and land automatically. Among passengers, sometimes there is even an opinion that the profession of a pilot is not as difficult as it is shown, say, in the movies - you sit, drink coffee and press the buttons. And if suddenly something happens, then automation will always help out and help even an ordinary passenger to land the plane. But is it really so?

Imagine. You are flying on vacation to sunny Cyprus or to a film festival in New York. On the screen of the multimedia system in the passenger seat, a colorful map with the route and flight parameters is displayed in front of you. Height 11 thousand meters, speed 890 kilometers per hour. Engines whistle measuredly, fluffy clouds float smoothly behind the porthole below, and from above - bottomless blue and dazzling sun. But then suddenly a pale stewardess runs into the cabin and loudly announces (although in fact this will never happen, because the instruction forbids) that all the pilots (yes, both at once!) Have lost consciousness and do not come into it.

Not a single pilot, like you, flying on vacation, is in the cabin. There is no one to fly and land the plane. And then you get up from your chair and with the gait of a true brave man go to the door of the cockpit. You have to get in somehow, but how? The door is armored, pilots control its opening. A flight attendant comes to the rescue: on a small digital panel next to the door, she dials a secret code. But the door does not open, because the electronic door lock provides for a delay: pilots must make sure through the camera that the flight attendant dialed the code alone, and not under the supervision of terrorists (in this case, they block the lock until the end of the flight). After a delay, the door opens.

In front of you: wind windows with clouds and bottomless blue, a lot of buttons, verniers, screens and screens, handles and handles, pilots' bodies and two steering wheels (if you are flying on a Boeing or Tupolev liner, or two joysticks if you are on an Airbus or SSJ). Most likely, when you enter the cockpit, the plane will fly under the control of the autopilot (because the weather is clear and nothing interferes). It is best to take a seat on the left. It is commanding, from there there are more than any opportunities to control the aircraft. First of all, on the steering wheel or joystick, you need to find the radio switch (just do not press the red button, otherwise you will turn off the autopilot).

After the radio communication switch is found, put on a headset (headphones with a microphone), press the found switch and say “Mayday” loudly and clearly several times (this is a distress signal, the dispatcher will definitely respond to it). If the switch on the steering wheel or joystick cannot be found, then a walkie-talkie will be found to the left of your chair. Feel free to take it, turn it on, tune it to a frequency of 121.5 megahertz and shout "Mayday" into it. Rescue services listen to this frequency, so soon you will be switched to the dispatcher or the pilot on duty, and he will already explain what to do next.

In fact, in this whole process, the most important step is the communication with the control tower. After the dispatcher answers your call for help, he will ask you for your flight number and tell you where you can find this information (for example, on the steering wheel, these numbers are on the "horn" on the left). And then the most interesting will begin - under the guidance of the dispatcher and the pilot on duty, you will proceed directly to the landing of the aircraft. If you have previously "flyed" at home on a computer flight simulator, it will be easier for you, but this is still not a guarantee of a successful landing.

Depending on the type of aircraft, the actions that the duty officer will prompt you will differ, but the general landing pattern is the same for everyone. To begin with, you will be asked to make sure that the autopilot is working properly and that the flight parameters that it adheres to are correct. At some distance from the airport, you will be prompted to transfer the autopilot to the approach mode, and then they will prompt you with which handles you need to set the speed, altitude, and turn. At the same time, you will be offered to set up the aircraft's automation to receive signals from the beacon of the instrumental landing system located at the airport. The plane will go to his signal when landing.

Then the moment will surely come when the pilot on duty will ask you to release the flaps (the handle on the center panel with the inscription FLAP and several divisions) and the landing gear (the large knob with arrows and the inscriptions UP and DOWN). After touching the runway, you will be ordered to turn on the engine reverse (levers on the engine control handles between the seats) and use all the wing mechanization to help slow down. Finally, you will be asked to apply the brakes (usually located on top of the steering pedals under your feet). All. You landed, the plane stopped. You can faint or heroically wipe the sweat from your forehead.

In fact, this was described as the ideal landing. In it you are a very lucky person. After all, the weather is good, there is no wind, the aircraft is equipped with an automatic landing system, and an instrumental landing system (a system of beacons that allows the aircraft to orient, find the runway and even align in its center) is installed at the receiving airport. Depending on the accuracy category, the instrumental landing system allows you to land the aircraft in automatic mode from a height of 790 to 49 meters. But so far only large airports are equipped with such systems, which means that in a regional port you will have to land in manual mode.

The fact is that the on-board automatic landing system on an aircraft without an instrumental landing system at the airport will not work; the plane simply “does not see” where to land, and everything will end very sadly. And if you thought that landing in automatic mode is like pressing two buttons and waiting for the plane to do everything by itself, then you were sorely mistaken. The machine has access only to the rudders, elevators and engines. You still have to turn on flaps, spoilers, spoilers, deflected socks, landing gear brakes and other mechanization.

If your arrival airport does not have an instrument landing system, or there is a strong side wind, rain, or fog, then you will most likely have to land the aircraft in full manual mode. And here your chances of success are reduced by an order of magnitude. The pilot on duty, of course, will tell you to the last where and what you need to pull, which pedal to press and what numbers to dial, but this is unlikely to help. The fact is that pilots learn how to fly an aircraft in bad weather conditions for a long time and hard. A person who is called "from the cold" has no chance.

And yes the bad news. If you have never been specifically interested in the device of the cockpit of the very aircraft on which you are flying, then both automatic and manual landing will end for you in the same way - a disaster in which everyone on board will die. There is always a small chance of survival, of course, but it is negligible. In automatic landing mode, you will at least have a few seconds to find the right handle or button, and the computer will insure you against serious mistakes. In the manual landing mode, there will simply be no time to look for the necessary buttons, and delay is death.

So no matter what modern aircraft you fly, you most likely won’t be able to land it without at least minimal training. But the good news is that until you land (or crash), you don't actually even know that anything happened to the pilots at all. Flight attendants, most likely, will simply not tell you this, because such information can cause panic on board, and this is already guaranteed death - it is impossible to control a panicking crowd. The flight attendants will try to take all actions for automatic or manual landing on their own until the end.

In 2009, a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 crashed near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The disaster killed nine people and injured 120 others. The plane was landing under the control of a professional pilot in automatic mode, and the cause of the disaster was the incorrect output of data by a radio altimeter. But do not panic: in the case when the plane is controlled by a pilot, the probability of a catastrophic landing in automatic mode is estimated at one in two billion.

And remember. There are always two pilots in the cockpit: the aircraft commander and co-pilot. In history passenger aviation so far there has not been a single case of both pilots failing at the same time. In November 2012, a Lufthansa Boeing 747 made an emergency landing at Dublin Airport (flying from New York to Frankfurt) after the pilot suffered a severe migraine attack. The co-pilot was helped to land the plane by one of the passengers, who happened to have little experience in piloting turboprop aircraft.

At the same time, there were only five or six cases in the history of aviation when a passenger or a stewardess would be involved in managing an aircraft as an assistant pilot. In all cases, the assistants had, albeit small, but still some experience in flying an aircraft.

But progress does not stand still. At the end of last year, the Federal civil aviation US new approach rules for passenger aircraft equipped with blind landing systems. Such aircraft can now land at airports closed to other aircraft due to poor visibility. These systems include several heading sensors, including infrared cameras, and technical information exchange equipment. During landing approach, the system displays combined images from heading sensors and various instrumental data in real time on the screen in the cockpit.

The presence on board the aircraft of "blind" and automatic landing systems (the development of an automatic taxiing system along the airfield is also underway) will make flights really safe in the next ten to twenty years. Given the development of automatic systems and the shortage of pilots, NASA at the beginning of last year created the position of "super traffic controller" at airports, and cut the crews of aircraft by half, that is, leave one pilot in the cockpit. Agency experts believe that one pilot can fly the plane under normal conditions, especially since most of the flight takes place, as a rule, under the control of the autopilot.

The "super traffic controller" at the airport will become a virtual co-pilot. It will be located in a special control center and will accompany several flights at once. In the event of an emergency or loss of the captain of the aircraft, he will take control. Remote control aircraft and data exchange will be carried out via a broadband communication channel in real time. Curiously, in response to NASA's proposal, some airlines decided to go even further and announced that aircraft could be left without pilots at all.

The fact is that the existing control and navigation systems of modern aircraft are already accurate enough to completely entrust the take-off, flight and landing of airliners to automation. For example, some aircraft are already equipped with RNP-1 specification navigation equipment. This means that in automatic mode the liner with a probability of 0.95 during the entire flight will deviate from the axis of the given route by no more than one nautical mile (1.852 kilometers). Knowing the high accuracy of navigation systems, the Israelis, for example, even intercept zones of air defense and missile defense systems right up to the borders of air corridors.

Major avionics manufacturers, including France's Thales and America's Honeywell, are already developing truly automated systems. Such systems will be independent of airport instrumentation systems and will be able to land aircraft on any runway suitable for them. The equipment of these systems will independently recognize the runways, assess the surrounding conditions and fly the aircraft. However, prior to the integration of such systems into passenger liners still very, very far away. After all, they still need to be tested, checked for reliability, duplicated. And that takes years of research.

navigationparameters.wordpress.com

Vasily Sychev

When you flew, dude, you probably at least once visited the thought like: “What if something happens to the pilot? How to plant this thing? What should I do anyway? Or, to adapt to current fashion: "What if terrorists hijack a plane and I have to act like Chuck Norris and neutralize this shit?"

You are a hero, dude! You're right: if something happens to the pilot, someone will have to land the plane. Relax, it's not as hard as it might seem at first glance. A few simple manipulations - and you are already on the ground, safe and sound, main character press conferences, a hero from newspaper photos!

Maintain aircraft control (straight and level)

As soon as you get into the cockpit, if possible, take a seat on the left - the captain usually sits there. This location provides easier access to some of the flight controls. However, most of the levers and buttons are accessible from both seats.

As soon as you sit in your chair, take a deep breath and see what the course of the plane is: it goes down (you see more land than the sky), up, turns, or whatever. If the plane flies straight and level, do not touch anything, the autopilot will cope with everything without you. However, if the plane is approaching the ground or turning, you will need to level off your course in order to fly further in a straight line. It's just like in a video game: pull the yoke to raise the plane, press forward to descend, and turn left or right to make the plane fly left or right.

If there are clouds around and you can't tell how the plane is moving, use the autohorizon (also called an artificial horizon). This is an instrument that gives an idea of ​​the position of the aircraft between heaven and earth. If there is such a thing on the plane, then there is a high probability that it will be located on the display right in front of you. The W-shaped figure in the middle represents the wings of the aircraft, the brown field represents the ground, and the blue represents the sky. So if you see that the blue and brown fields are equal to each other, it means that everything is in order with the trajectory. If you see something different, adjust the flight direction so that the blue field equals the brown one.

Contact by radio

So, the plane is under control, and your next step is to contact air traffic management, describe the situation and ask for help. In most aircraft, the radio microphone is located right on the yoke, where your index finger would normally be when you just hold the yoke. The problem is that the autopilot switch is often placed somewhere around the same place, and without proper knowledge, you can accidentally turn it off, and this is fraught with you know what. A safer alternative is to use a hand radio, which is usually mounted to the left of the pilot's seat right next to the side window. Use it like a walkie-talkie: press to talk and release to listen.

Try to make a call on the configured frequency and wait for a response. Say "SOS" or "Mayday", tell who you are and what happened. Don't worry about etiquette. This is an emergency, so be normal and explain that you don't know what to do and need help, but don't show any signs of panic. After all, you are a man and you have everything under control.

After you say everything, release the button and listen to what they tell you. If no one responds, try changing the frequency to VHF 121.5 MHz (this is the distress frequency, it is always monitored). The radio unit is usually located between the pilot and co-pilot or directly in front of the first pilot on the center panel.

Do what you are told

From now on, everything will be just like in the movies. Various agencies will be notified of your distress, and they will certainly find an expert to help you land the plane. He will know the layout of the cockpit and the location of all the necessary levers and buttons - so they will explain to you in detail what to press and what to pull. You will also be told where to turn, where is the nearest airport where you can land. If you strictly follow the instructions, everything will be fine. Landing will not be the softest, but there will be no casualties.

We land the plane

I repeat, it's not as difficult as it seems. Modern aircraft almost completely automated (including landing). At least they can find the center of the runway from above. All you need to do manually:

• leveling (pull the steering wheel so that the main landing gear touches the ground first);
• point the nose wheel to the ground (steering wheel away from you until the nose landing gear touches the ground);
• remove the traction (we move the traction control levers to the rear position);
• press the brakes located at the top of the steering pedals directly under your feet;
• when leaving the runway, lightly steer with the steering pedals to adjust the position of the aircraft relative to the center line of the runway.

Congratulations dude, you landed! Before you lean back in your seat and rest on your laurels, here are a few more tips.

• Extend the landing gear before landing. Without this, what do you have a successful landing? Guys in this emergency may forget to mention this point: for them, this is an elementary truth.
• To slow down before landing, you will need to use different switches - for example, use the slats (on large aircraft) and flaps. Thanks to them, the aircraft is in a horizontal position, moving at a low speed during landing. These levers are next to the traction control levers.
• When dealing with landing gear, flaps and slats, remember that they can only be used at low speeds. Of course, the plane won't explode if you let them out early, but it's better not to do it anyway. If you have lost contact with the adviser, look in the takeoff and landing data (TOLD - take off and landing data).
• Look for the speed board and make sure the plane's speed is within the green zone. Green is generally a friendly color, a bad deed is not indicated by green. If the arrow is on the yellow field, this is fixable, but if it is in red, write is gone. Remember: slowing down too much is also a risky business, so you can go into a dive. There's nothing you can do to help here.
• Maintain a speed of 200 knots (370 km/h). Before landing, slow down to 130 knots (240 km/h). Now you can open the flaps, slats and extend the landing gear. Although it all depends on specific model plane - listen to instructions.

Soft landing to you, dude!