Do you think you could fly a plane with no formal training? A helicopter?

I could land a plane, surviving the landing is a different question

quote:

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Having a discussion with a buddy of mine, I say could take off, fly, and land a small aircraft.

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Watching Top Gun 15 times convinced you that the shite was easy?

I played some very realistic flight simulators complete with realistic controllers.

Could I fly a commercial jet? No.

Could I maybe take off in a small personal aircraft? Maybe. But no way I could keep it in the air, much less land it.

Are you getting talked through it by an expert, or just completely on your own?


Mythbusters actually did a special on landing a plane in the case of a pilot emergency. Without instruction, everyone crashed miserably. With instruction from the tower, they all landed the plane. If I remember right. I don't think anyone without training or guidance is going to take off, fly, and land a small plane successfully.


Helicopter... no chance.

I saw a video of a drunk guy at an air show run out of the crowd and jump in a plane that was getting ready to take off. It looked like he did it pretty easily. He may have had some training but I doubt it. I don't think there's much to it.

Colton Harris Moore taught himself to fly well enough to steal airplanes solely through Youtube videos and Microsoft Flight Simulator LINK

I think I could take off and fly a small Cessna type plane.

I don't think I have the skill set to land it, though. So, I guess the answer is, no.

Helicopter is extremely hard. Pedals and cyclic are extremely touchy and then you have to worry about the collective.

I couldn’t fly an R-44 in a straight line using pedals and cyclic, much less land the thing.

I have flown ultra light aircrafts with no formal training. Easy to take off, fly, and land. Never tried in a Cessna or anything.

Anyone can take off in a small plane with no crosswind, you literally just give it gas and pull back(but not too far) if you've ever flown it's amazing how easy it is to take off.
Now crosswind changes everything.
Landing isn't hard it just takes a lot more skill.

A helicopter hell no. I did one lesson and it was a bitch.
Cyclic, collective the pedals, helicopters takea lot more attention and the ability to feel what you are doing. Flying a plane is easier than driving a car and landing is on par with parallel parking.

Remote control planes are much much harder.
(I'm not talking jets)