John was a good friend of ours and a talented airline pilot who flew big jets.. Cessna 208Cessna 208 .He considered himself a landing specialist — something he did better than most.While other pilots would head to an alternate in bad weather, John would sometimes venture on — if the dispatcher gave the go ahead.He once landed in heavy fog in Ireland and his voice on the phone reflected the adrenaline that was probably still coursing through him.He said he barely could see anything when the wheels hit the runway.Anyway, one night he was flying into Hong Kong in a fully loaded Boeing 767.Everything was fine when suddenly the screens went blank. The captain said, "We're dead," got out of his seat and went to the bathroom.John took over — as you may know there are backup gauges and he was able to jump on these right away.Long story short, he brought it in fine, with some help from Hong Kong Air Traffic Control (ATC).What went wrong? It was later found out by Boeing that the computer was just rebooting itself. It was a software glitch that was immediately fixed in every other 767.But it's one thing to have extensive training and thousands of hours of experience. What if you have none and you must land a plane?This week, a man with no flight experience whatsoever was faced with taking over the controls of a nine-seater Cessna 208 over Florida after the pilot became incapacitated with a medical issue.With guidance from Air Traffic Controller Robert Morgan, a certified flight instructor, a passenger was able to bring the plane into Palm Beach airport safely, with a miraculous picture perfect landing.He then radioed for help as he didn't know how to make the plane stop!What's interesting is that Morgan had never flown a 208 — he had to Google a picture of the plane's instrument panel layout and going by that, guide the passenger step by step.Which all begs the question, how difficult is it to land an aircraft, if you've never held onto an aircraft yoke and felt the sweat drip down your face as you approached a runway?I had good instructors at the Windsor Flying Club, which flew older, used Cherokee 140s. Safety was a serious matter there and it was drilled into us from day one.Still, I would lose my first flying instructor, who got caught in a snowstorm north of London, Ont., and was killed with his passengers.He was one of the best I ever flew with, but sometimes the odds are stacked against you.Long story short, I got my private pilot's licence before my driver's licence. On some days, when I couldn't hitch a ride to the airport, I actually had to bike to the flying club and then go for a flight.The club didn't like that and admonished me for it. They said I should never, ever be tired before climbing into a plane. Nor should one be hungover, either. It was "12- hours from bottle to throttle."And God help you if you broke any of those rules — one would have to face the wrath of one instructor Ali Khan, who ran a tight ship.I was also a big airplane nerd and I'd even built a Boeing 727 simulator out of wood, black paper, white colouring pencils and air caps painted red for effect, in my basement.I wrote to Boeing for the cockpit instrument plans and they sent them!So, how hard is it to fly a plane? To be honest, I could teach you in 20 minutes how to make turns, how to fly level, even how to trim a plane to make it stable.When you know what to do, it's not that difficult. Pull up, and the plane goes up. Push down, and the plane goes down.Hit the rudders and the plane slides. Simple stuff.The difficult part, in my opinion, is multi-tasking and finding the airport!Keeping a constant speed with the yoke, watching the gauges, especially airspeed and altitude, keeping your head on a swivel and watching for traffic, knowing where you are and checking your map and listening to ATC chatter. That takes a bit of getting used to.These days, if you are in a control zone, ATC does not take kindly to you if you can't hold your given altitude. You will end up getting a pranging if you don't comply.And then, the truly hard part ... landing. That takes a bit of practice.Something our buddy John excelled at and it helped him in his career as an airline pilot.You've probably heard the expression that landing is a controlled crash. That is more or less the case.However, with today's aircraft, some of which can land themselves, the technology is so good these things can practically fly themselves.I must also be said that an instructor on the phone, so to speak, is similar to having an instructor sitting next to you. As long as you don't panic, everything is cool.They can guide you every step of the way.Even then I'm still amazed this guy pulled it off without a hitch. I mean, I've flown with some amazing pilots in my day, including the legendary bush pilot, "Midnight" Jimmy Anderson. And every time you fly with someone like this, you learn something.But to be suddenly handed the yoke with no experience is another thing altogether.I never flew a 208, but even as a former licensed pilot, I would be intimidated strapping myself into the left seat. Especially on a hot Florida afternoon inbound over water, from the Bahamas.But basically you cut back on the power, engage the flaps, trim the aircraft for landing, keep it at 85 mph and line up on the runway. The rest is up to God.I've seen instructors trim a plane so well, the damn thing practically landed itself ... we only had to take over for the flare.And who cares, if you end up bouncing down the runway (as I did in Oshawa, one hot August day.) Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, as they say.I didn't solo until my 16th hour of dual, but some hotshots do solo sooner. It just depends on the person. My buddy Dennis beat me by a couple hours and never let me forget it.To this day, I don't remember a single thing about that solo landing, other than I was totally exhausted after I taxied it to the club, and shut off the engine.Several pats on the back followed and,I felt pretty good about myself that day.Just like that fellow in Florida probably felt.CNN reported other pilots were stunned, as another air traffic controller relayed across the airwaves what had just unfolded."You just witnessed a couple of passengers land that plane," the tower operator can be heard telling an American Airlines pilot waiting to take off for Charlotte, North Carolina. "Did you say the passengers landed the airplane?" the American Airlines pilot asked. "Oh, my God. Great job," he said.After the Cessna's landing, Morgan met his new student, who gave him a big hug and said thank you," CNN reported."It was an emotional moment. He said that he just wanted to get home to his pregnant wife," Morgan said. "And that felt even better.""In my eyes, he was the hero. I was just doing my job."
