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PAX Helps Land CO 757?!?

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How could someone who is not familier with the aircraft be of any help? I have a 757 afm and even the radios/audio panel is different than a typical ga plane. Unless maybe the captain new the pilot and trusted him. other than that I would think the pilot would want to land it himself.
 
airplane wizard said:
How could someone who is not familier with the aircraft be of any help? I have a 757 afm and even the radios/audio panel is different than a typical ga plane. Unless maybe the captain new the pilot and trusted him. other than that I would think the pilot would want to land it himself.
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A cool Captain would have given the guy the landing.
 
pipe said:
A cool Captain would have given the guy the landing.
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thats funny.

seriously, I can't believe this is any kind of big deal. Anyone flying the 757 for a major airline can land a 757 all by himself if he has to. Get your own flaps and your own gear. And if I had time, I would take the 3.5 seconds to move from the right seat to the left seat (even if I had never flown the 757 from the left seat...which I haven't) so I could have access to the tiller. I can't believe someone is saying that it would be unsafe to make that move with the seat empty and the autopilot on. Heck, even with no autopilot, as long as its trimmed up, the thing is going to fly straight and level whether there is a butt in the seat or not.

Except for the unfortunate death of the captain, this is a non-event.
 
this has turned into a complete waste of a post. Seat switch...WHO CARES! I bet if something had happpened on landing that he needed to get to the tiller but was in the wrong seat, the same people would have been critical of him for NOT switching seats. This is rediculous...and im a fool for even adding to it. If you think its unsafe givin the conditions to be out of the seat for a few seconds with the autopilot on...i dont know what to tell you. Spend a little cash, rent a plane and go stretch her legs (that means dont fly just straight and level) out so you know what an aircraft is capable of.
 
Clavin said:
thats funny.

And if I had time, I would take the 3.5 seconds to move from the right seat to the left seat (even if I had never flown the 757 from the left seat...which I haven't) so I could have access to the tiller. I can't believe someone is saying that it would be unsafe to make that move with the seat empty and the autopilot on. Heck, even with no autopilot, as long as its trimmed up, the thing is going to fly straight and level whether there is a butt in the seat or not.
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I think you are missing the point on the moving seat thing. The FAA view (as it was explained to me in training where we did many many seat swaps) is not that it can't be done--its that it should not be done. The concept is that things are already bad--why make them worse for no reason? You can fly and land from the seat you are in. That is the philosophy of the design of the airplane. In this business, things can go bad quickly. You are already in a bad situation when you lose the other crew member. I personally do not care that this check airman did this and it worked--but what if...................
happened and you found out from the tapes this guy was doing a solo seat swap? Would you be defending this practice in those circumstances? It really seems like it is the younger guys out there defending this and treating it like a non event.
 
munson said:
this has turned into a complete waste of a post. Seat switch...WHO CARES! I bet if something had happpened on landing that he needed to get to the tiller but was in the wrong seat, the same people would have been critical of him for NOT switching seats. This is rediculous...and im a fool for even adding to it. If you think its unsafe givin the conditions to be out of the seat for a few seconds with the autopilot on...i dont know what to tell you. Spend a little cash, rent a plane and go stretch her legs (that means dont fly just straight and level) out so you know what an aircraft is capable of.
Click to expand...
The FAA cares and the manufacturer cares and the 150 people in the back would have cared if XXX had happened while no one was at the controls. Please let me know what could have happened on the ground where you needed the tiller vs what could have happened in the air with no one at the controls. You are a fool because you can not spell. Go spend some money and rent a 152 and loop it a few times, you know--stretch her legs a little just so you know what "she" is capable of. When we read about you in the paper after the wings come off we will shake our heads and be glad you did not take anyone with you.
 
I'm less concerned about the seat swap and more interested in why the guy decided it was a good idea to call in a private pilot and scare everyone in the process to land an airplane he's trained to land by himself. Airplane has TCAS, and if traffic avoidance was that much of an issue, an FA could do the job as well as any 150hr private pilot. Same thing with reading a checklist.

But then, that's just what went through my head when I read it and I don't have the experience or qualifications to judge the guy, so I was hoping that instead of spending 4 pages on seat swapping, we could discuss this a bit more.
 
PositionandHold said:
I'm less concerned about the seat swap and more interested in why the guy decided it was a good idea to call in a private pilot and scare everyone in the process to land an airplane he's trained to land by himself. Airplane has TCAS, and if traffic avoidance was that much of an issue, an FA could do the job as well as any 150hr private pilot. Same thing with reading a checklist.

But then, that's just what went through my head when I read it and I don't have the experience or qualifications to judge the guy, so I was hoping that instead of spending 4 pages on seat swapping, we could discuss this a bit more.
Click to expand...

I can only think that when they paged for a "pilot" they were thinking along the lines of maybe a non-rev CAL or Jetlink pilot in the back.
 
You guys are tearing this all apart. The pilot had a medical emergency. I am guessing that they made a PA announcement for a doctor, nurse or paramedic. Then somewhere in this "emergency" they made a call for any Deadheading Pilots. My guess is that this private pilot thought he might be able to "assist".....NOT FLY AND SAVE THE DAY. The IOE captain, being an experienced pilot, said "can you read a checklist and say clear right?" (probably an exageration on this part).

I have 16,000+ hrs., but only maybe 30 hours as single pilot (or occupant), I would just feel better having someone sitting over there. The cockpit gets big and lonely all by yourself.

As far as switching seats, this is a big roomy cockpit (not an RJ or a saab), plenty of room to move around and get comfy.

If all of you guys are soooo worried about the FAA busting him for switching seats, I am surprised that none of you asked if he "donned his oxygen mask". Isnt there an FAR that says if one pilot leaves his seat, the remaining pilot must put on his mask?

This pilot did a good job. He aviated. He navigated. He communicated. He managed the situation.
 
FA to Copilot, "Good news!"
Copilot to FA, "You found a pilot back there that can help me out?"
FA to Copilot, "No, but I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance."

or how bout:
I'm not a 757 pilot, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

oh wait... one more:
Landing the 757 is so easy a caveman can do it.
 
The monday morning quaterbacking is awesome. He did what he thought was best during a very crazy situation. I hope I'm never in that situation.

For all of those second guessing him. Do any of you have goals of being an FAA inspector or a future chief pilot, because you sound like one.
 
The guy did a good job. You will probably never hear about this incident again. Kind of boring now that the age 60-> 65 news eh?
 
I had no idea this thread was going to go to the $hitter...oh wait this is FI. I should have known better. I apologize for even starting it in the first place; I was just trying to see if in fact it did really happen. Who cares if he switched seats?
 
Boy do we have quite the F.I. conundrum here...

Seat switching

SIC becomes PIC

Autopilot was on in perhaps IMC

Private PAX becomes SIC (oh dear, can he log it?)

geeeeeez.... what else?


.
 

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