Is flying an airliner easy?

[leardawg]

The most important skill, as it is with all professional flying positions, is the ability to locate and press three big buttons in the cockpit: WHINE; BITCH & MOAN; COMPLAIN ABOUT LOT IN LIFE. (And I know where they are as well as anyone, before I get flamed to a crisp!).

 

[CaptainMark]

Yes. It's easy.

Flying a 747 is probably "easier" that fr8 dogging a Baron with no autopilot and crappy avionics and a questionable maintaince record. The plane gives you a lot more help (thru avionics) in an airliner than a small GA ride. But if you screw up in the Baron, you might kill yourself and make a small trench in a field. If you screw up in a 747, you take a few hundred people in the back, a few in the front and God only knows how many on the ground.

It's kinda like askig which is easier, golf or football.

if it's so easy can a housewife walk into my A300 and take it from memphis to paris...i think we are talking different kinds of EASY!!

 

[CSY Mon]

Flying a 747 is probably "easier" that fr8 dogging a Baron with no autopilot and crappy avionics and a questionable maintaince record.

On the other hand, some of us fr8 dog 747s with no autopilot, crappy avionics and questionable maintenance records into Quito at night.

It is easy if the weather is good..When the fog rolls in and the fuel goes low, it ain't.

This is also airline flying, but non-sched type.

If regular "airline" type flying gets to be too boring, ya can always quit and take a crappy job that is more challenging....Not many folks have done that however..

Jump in, the water is nice....

 

[Say Again Over]

if it's so easy can a housewife walk into my A300 and take it from Memphis to Paris by Capt Mark

I fly in the so called "third world", and many of the pilots I fly with were previous cabin crew, so I would say after taking someone off the street and two years later they're in the small bus, yes it must be easy, now getting employed by Fed Ex might be another story.

 

[CaptainMark]

Well then........it must not be that easy if they have to go thru 2 years of training...

 

[Say Again Over]

Well then, I don't believe so... you have your opinion and I think different, nothing in my training has been at a level that was any higher than highschool, on the other hand I have studied medicine and that IS hard, wouldn't want someone with two years training operating on me, or representing me in a court of law. I believe flying for a living takes a lot of determination but not a lot of brain power, just my opinion.

 

[banned username 1]

Can reasonable men not disagree???

I duuno about you, but I'm surprised PETA hasn't protested about this thread and equine cruelty.

"Make it stop, Daddy!!!"

 

[Huggyu2]

PETA?.... equine?.... reminds me of a story in France when I cooked some horse meat steaks on the grill. But I digress....

 

[Eagleflip]

Although I am sorely tempted, there are no "Pro-Equine" rules at Flight Info...

Flail onward!

 

[banned username 1]

I suppose you're going to tell me that it tastes like chicken? No, I'll beat you to it (no pun) and say "No, It tastes like horse". :laugh:

 

[Metro752]

I fly airliners all the time. The hardest ones are the 1:72 scale, they sometimes bump stuff.

 

[Lead Sled]

Is flying an airliner hard? One of aviation's little secrets is that generally, the larger the airplane the easier it is to fly. It's nothing that the average individual - given the proper training and the opportunity to gain an appropriate amount of experience - couldn't do and couldn't do well. It doesn't take a super human to fly a jet transport.

'Sled

 

[SeanD]

I was just reading this post from start to finish. I am just a student pilot working my way through and I also appreciated all the advise I have seen on this thread. Hope to fly with some of you guys one day.

 

[SkyWestCRJPilot]

When I had about 100 hours I flew a long flight in an Archer about 4 hours each way over the desert southwest. After hand flying for so long I really hated it. I almost quit flying because the monotony of hand flying and trying to keep the airplane straight and level for 4 hours of thermals just wasn't fun at all. I thought to myself, "wouldn't it be great to have some device that could just do this boring straight and level flying for me." I never thought about an autopilot. As I became a CFI and was the guy in charge of the flight and later flying more advanced aircraft and more automated aircraft I realized that the important part about being a pilot is learning how to manage the aircraft and make good decisions. Hand flying is sometimes like the junior petty officer on the sub or the ship who has actual control of the craft. The ship or sub captain though is the one telling him what to do and where to go. On a complex airplane thought it's similar with the automation. The autopilot flies it while you tell it what to do. You become more of a manager. I rarely hand fly except for takeoff and visual approaches which are fun. In cruise it's just the same old stuff. Flying a larger plane isn't hard once you get the feel for it. But flying larger automated complex airplanes is where the good money and schedules are (eventually). If you want to just "fly" for a living then you can do airshows or something like that but those jobs are hard to come by and the pay may not be so hot. But some airline pilots have their own planes they fly on their days off. Most are small and simple to get back to the basics which they miss flying the heavy stuff. I'm not sure if I'm answering your question but maybe it's the wrong question to ask. Sure the hand flying is easy but the decisions involved with flying a multimillion dollar aircraft carrying numerous people are extremely important and you can't screw up.

 

[Resocha]

I believe flying for a living takes a lot of determination but not a lot of brain power, just my opinion.

Agreed. It's actually easy, but perserverance is a must. Anyone can be an airline pilot, it's an issue of how much BS one can tolerate.