Tuesday evening:-
A plane passenger has made an emergency landing after the pilot became ill and unable to operate the controls.
Emergency services gathered at Humberside Airport, north Lincolnshire, yesterday evening after the passenger in the light aircraft had to land it with the help of two instructors from the ground, an airport spokesman said.
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>> Stuart Sykes said he saw the aircraft land at about 19:50 BST.
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>> "It came down with a bump, a bump, a bump, hit the front end down,
>> I heard some crashing and it's come to a halt," he told BBC Look North.
Sounds like one of my landings.
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>> Sounds like one of my landings.
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Ah - it was YOU was it?
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Two flying instructors were called in to advise the passenger how to bring the plane down.
One of them, Roy Murray, said the passenger had no flying experience and did a "remarkable job".
The passenger and pilot were the only people on board the aircraft, which took off from Sandtoft Airfield 25 miles (40km) away.
Mr Murray, who works at a flying school based at the airport, said: "He made quite a good landing, actually.
"He didn't know the layout of the aeroplane, he didn't have lights on so he was absolutely flying blind as well.
"I think he'd flown once before as a passenger but never flown an aeroplane before."
I knew it - no skill required, anyone can do it; like driving a lorry.
:)
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It must depend a lot on what sort of plane. When you see a picture of the cockpit of a jumbo jet you wonder how on earth you would ever learn what everything does.
But when I once went up as a passenger in a two-seater, there were actually hardly any controls at all. It had dual controls, so I had a go for a few minutes. Basically there was the lever you pull or push or move sideways to steer or go up and down, like the Street View button, and an accelerator.
The important thing apparently was not to go too slowly when coming in. Cut the speed to about 80 mph, come in low-ish over the last hedge, ease it down onto the ground, then throttle back and pull the lever as if to climb, which pushes the tail down hard onto the ground. Then hope it stops before the next hedge.
No brakes. It felt a bit like driving alanovic's old Wolseley at 80 along a cart track.
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Picture of the cockpit, along with interview with (ex-RAF) 'pilot':
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/10368304/Rookie-pensioners-emergency-night-landing.html
Last edited by: Focusless on Wed 9 Oct 13 at 22:46
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