[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by anarchist

Man I am sure flying a plane is a dream come true for most guys, me included, sadly bad sight meant I never get into the cockpit of a plane...

Donno if this will encourage you, but please have a look at DGCA medical requirements dgca.nic.in. You are allowed to fly with glasses... for power etc look at the specifics.

[deky]

Ok, this may sound a very stupid question, but what i really want to know is that does it take 2 to fly a plane as big as this, or just a single person can handle this. As i see there are 2 different sets of controls for each pilot in the photo, thats why I asked.

If only single person can fly, then how does he manage?

What does auto-pilot mean, can landing/ takeoff be done by auto-pilot?

In what situations does the auto-pilot not work?

[loving_alaap]

There was a very good series of episodes on discovery, known as "Air crash investigations".

All the details on Aircraft, How they have damaged & many more things were beautifully captured in that. Worth to see.


By the way, while watching that, one can quite aware of the cockpit functioning.

[mmmjgm]

Hi Flyboy747,

Great review of the 747-400 (i assume you pilot the 400 series).

Please please, put up a trip log of one of your trips.

Things like Trim, load, V1, V2 R speeds, airfield altitute, pressure, temperature max N1 settings used on TO/GA.

Cruising altitute, Regn number, etc.

As well as your parameters for Flap selection etc.

Cheers and god bless.
M

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by deky

Ok, this may sound a very stupid question, but what i really want to know is that does it take 2 to fly a plane as big as this, or just a single person can handle this. As i see there are 2 different sets of controls for each pilot in the photo, thats why I asked.

If only single person can fly, then how does he manage?

What does auto-pilot mean, can landing/ takeoff be done by auto-pilot?

In what situations does the auto-pilot not work?

Its a good question and certianly not a stupid one. Airplanes are complex machinery and they require well developed procedures and techniques along with airmanship to keep them in the air!

Airplane controls are duplicated/designed for redunancy for safety purposes, if one fails the backup works, likewise having a 2 man crew helps as a backup along with dividing critical tasks among two people. A concept called crew resource management (CRM) which involves making optimum utilization of resources (instruments, procedures, people) for flight is used. Almost all airplanes today from single engine planes to multi engine transports use the two person flight control systems. Having two people also ensures that anything which might be missed by the PIC will be caught by the co-pilot.

A single person can fly an airplane, especially smaller ones in visual flight rules, but in instrument conditions the workload gets so large and complex that it would drain the single pilot quickly.

An autopilot/flight director is a tool which is intigrated with the airplane instruments and controls and based on a pre entered flight plan can 'fly' the airplane from point a to point b. Some flight directors can also auto land the plane if the airport has the required instrument landing facilities. However the pilots do have to monitor the auto pilot just because in emergencies a computer cannot take decisions which a human can. An auto pilot just like any system can fail sometime, even though there are duplicate/triplicate forms of reduncies built into the system.

An airplane is probably the safest automotive system built by man. Lot of goodies in the mordern auto has come from aviation example disk brakes, fuel injection, inline engines etc

Hope this helps... would expect other seniors to contribute more

[bugatti_86]

Fortunately my residence lies between secondary runway 14/32

hi revtech that was nonsense part of english...sorry for it,but thanks for answering my queries.also the 1st four pics are real B747 & the rest is of FS 2004.

hi flyboy747 thanks for answering all the queries,some more will be posting it after my examz.Thanks again...

[revtech]

Originally Posted by loving_alaap

A certificate???

Its a life saving man. (certificate might be for Paragliding.

What will happen, if a plane is flying on a city!!!!! & caught in a fire!!!! Where you inflate your life jackets?

You need parachuted man.

Its Life saving if you know how to.if a plane catches fire the pilot performs an emergency landing where ever he see an open area.i dont think its possible to make 300+ jump and make sure each one deploys his parachute at the right time(altitude) in the right manner.

about the license for jumps here goes

What must I do to get licensed?

To get a USPA license to skydive takes 25 jumps, plus several technical requirements, and demonstration of specific skydiving skills. It does cost money, and your best bet is to discuss options with your Skydiving Instructor. We have lots of information to help you!

Skydive City - tandem skydiving Florida

i remember my roomate going for this.

Originally Posted by bugatti_86

hi revtech that was nonsense part of english...sorry for it,but thanks for answering my queries.also the 1st four pics are real B747 & the rest is of FS 2004.

yeah i thought as much.they looked too real.how did you manage to get them by the way ?


rev

[appuchan]

Great to see a full fledged pilot here. I am a PPL holder but with no flying for almost 4 years now, since I relocated to India. Would love to refresh the experience. Please start a blog on your flying routines and interesting events during the same.

[vasu]

Nice to have you here flyboy sir.Its great to be a pilot.great review.I also wanted to be a pilot i insisted my parents for CPL traning after my 12th exam.But they does not agree and told me to do Engineering so so common and basic today.i am doing engineering now in 1st year.

[junkishya]

(I have flown an Airbus previously) I would say that a Boeing gives more control to the pilots whereas an Airbus has a computer watching what you do at all times (like big brother!). A Boeing is more fun to fly.

Is it true that the decisions by pilot in Airbus A320 are overridden by the onboard computer; this not being the case in A310. Was one of the reasons for the 1990 Bangalore aircrash was the computer overriding the pilot instructions to "Pull-up" ?

I thought Reversers work on a similar principle of exhaust fan / fresh-Air fan. When rotating in one direction, the air is sucked from front and thrusted back. When the same fan is rotated in the opposite direction, the air is sucked from behind and thrusted to the front. Since the engine fan rotates in one direction, the fan blades are actually tilted in a different direction such that the thrust is directed to the front, thus resulting in deaccelaration. Is that correct ?

[flyboy747]

@junkishya
That is not correct. The inputs have to be within certain safety parameters too intricate to be discussed on this forum. The Bangalore crash was due to a chain of errors again best not discussed here. Very competent people lost their lives in that unfortunate accident.

Go through the rest of the posts and you will see one on the workings of thrust reversers.

Originally Posted by mmmjgm

Hi Flyboy747,

Great review of the 747-400 (i assume you pilot the 400 series).

Please please, put up a trip log of one of your trips.

Things like Trim, load, V1, V2 R speeds, airfield altitute, pressure, temperature max N1 settings used on TO/GA.

Cruising altitute, Regn number, etc.

As well as your parameters for Flap selection etc.

Cheers and god bless.

M

The details you ask for I am not at liberty to share on a public forum. Generic information is fine but details like what you want (load, trim etc) would not be possible. I hope you understand.

[maddy42]

Alot OT but i felt like sharing:-)
My friend works for a low cost airline as a trainee pilot. Recently on my visit to his house he showed some of his vids of his training and his training center in canada. Brilliant. The single engine planes were simply amazing.
So it was then which i remembered having tried to play Flight sim and was badly unsuccesful in that game. So i asked him to play that game and god the controls were simply amazing. The difference between me playing the game and him was like VAST. I was used to car games where you hop in and drive and so basically lack patience but this game required tonnes of it.

Overall i will learn to fly one day and my goal is to build myself a motorised glider.

[mmmjgm]

Originally Posted by flyboy747

The details you ask for I am not at liberty to share on a public forum. Generic information is fine but details like what you want (load, trim etc) would not be possible. I hope you understand.

Hey Flyboy747,

Share whatever you can, no problem it's just that we are a bunch of enthusiasts who wish to know how planes fly, what in your opinion is a dangerous airport to land, etc etc anecdotes funny incidents, stories which you can reveal on a public forum.

regards
M

[loving_alaap]

Hi Flyboy,

just like there have to be niggling issues while driving a car, can you through some light on what are the "small" niggling issues you come across while "driving a 747???

As its a fact that aircrafts are usually >10 years old...

[vijaycool]

I have this silly doubt for quite some time. How you start these big engine? Does this have any starter motor to turn the engine main shaft? How the engine will start from ground without high air pressure from the compressor. 10 tonnes per hour of fuel. Wondering how large the fuel pump is