If you were given the challenge to fly a plane from ny to la

[alzan]

Does the plane have to be flight worthy after I land it?

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Would definitely do it and can do it. I wouldn't need money as a reward because saving my own life would be a good enough of a reward.

 

[phucheneh]

How does a manual plane work? Is there a clutch or is it flappy paddles?

 

[mikeford]

Size doesn't make that much difference, take off simple, most "introductory" flights the instructor lets the person do the take off. Planes at full throttle want to fly.

Flying other than weather is a little more difficult depending on how manual the navigation is, day vs night, etc.

Landing is the hard part, two minutes of sweat as you do several things exactly right including timing the events. OTOH you could practice landing a few dozen times at higher altitude, ala 4k to 10k feet instead of near the ground until you feel more comfortable.

The painful lesson learned by many "new" jet pilots is that while jet engines have HUGE power, they take some time to spool up from a lower power setting like you would use during landing. This means by the time you realize you need more power its too late.

 

[sportage]

If you had no experience and never been in a plane you'd never get off the ground let alone fly the thing. Might as well ask if you knew nothing about medicine and were offered 1 trillion to perform brain surgery, would you?
Btw, aircraft even the 2 seaters have better than GPS.
Directional towers scattered all over the nation.
You just dial in a frequency, and keep the needle centered on the bulls eye.
But you do need a navigational map with tower locators listed and their frequencies.
That's how the big boys do it. Simple enough for a child to figure out.
Better than gps.

 

[Red Squirrel]

But the real question is: where does the money come from? You can't just take a trillion out of thin air, it's got to be taken from somewhere...

Let's assume it's a government sponsored thing.

It will come from printers.

 

[sao123]

And at the end, you are given 2 trillion dollars

You must fly the plane by yourself and all you get is a manual

Would you do it?

Do I get a stewardess to bring me my soda and 1st class meal?

 

[angminas]

$2 trillion is actually too much money. I'd instantly become the most famous and most bothered person in the world.

 

[JMapleton]

2 trillion? Seriously? I wouldn't want 2 trillion dollars for free. It would be like throwing your life away. You would automatically become the most famous person on Earth and likely be hunted, criticized, critiqued, and stalked by every person, media organization, foreign and domestic government agency. It would be terrible. I'd rather be a bum in a cardboard box than have 2 trillion dollars. You would probably also destabilize the US Dollar by having an additional 2 trillion printed by the Federal Reserve and dumped onto the open market. It would harm the economy and eventually your 2 trillion would shrivel to nothing in an economic collapse.

"Standard commercial plane"? Could you possibly be more vague? That could be a Cessna Citation or a Boeing 747!?!!?! I personally think the small Cessna would be easier. I'd actually rather have a very slow turboprop over a "jet". Seems like it'd be safer.

 

[JMapleton]

$2 trillion is actually too much money. I'd instantly become the most famous and most bothered person in the world.

More than bothered, your life would be in as much danger, if not more, then any world leader and you would lose all privacy for the rest of your life. It would be a nightmare. It would be suicide.

 

[JMapleton]

But the real question is: where does the money come from? You can't just take a trillion out of thin air, it's got to be taken from somewhere...

BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Deep breath.

BWHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Tell that to the Federal Reserve.

In theory, 2 trillion can indeed be taken "out of thin air." Well thin paper.

 

[_Rick_]

BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Deep breath.

BWHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Tell that to the Federal Reserve.

In theory, 2 trillion can indeed be taken "out of thin air." Well thin paper.

No, by simply printing 2 trillion, you are taking slightly less than 2 trillion from everybody who has monetary assets in that currency. That's how inflation works.

 

[her209]

Thread twist! Justin Bieber is your passenger!!!

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Totally. Compared with getting it off the ground, the rest is relatively trivial. And there's no stipulation that the cash is granted only in the event of a safe landing. A commercial airliner should be safe enough to crash-land.

 

[mikeford]

If you had no experience and never been in a plane you'd never get off the ground let alone fly the thing. Might as well ask if you knew nothing about medicine and were offered 1 trillion to perform brain surgery, would you?
Btw, aircraft even the 2 seaters have better than GPS.
Directional towers scattered all over the nation.
You just dial in a frequency, and keep the needle centered on the bulls eye.
But you do need a navigational map with tower locators listed and their frequencies.
That's how the big boys do it. Simple enough for a child to figure out.
Better than gps.

Brain surgery isn't hard if it doesn't matter whether the patient lives or not.

All the airplanes I've seen have a nice step by step manual on preflight and take off, its really just not that tough.

 

[jwhorfin]

Brain surgery isn't hard if it doesn't matter whether the patient lives or not.

All the airplanes I've seen have a nice step by step manual on preflight and take off, its really just not that tough.

Not that tough at all 20 mins or so to get a 737 off the ground. Shorter by skipping a few safety checks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEaVaXJsykY

 

[bruceb]

Yes, I would try it. Takeoff is fairly simple as is in flight navigation, especially with auto pilot most of the way. All planes have a checklist board, so setting the landing configuration is not too much of an issue. You do need to set the altimeter for the airport you will be landing at and judging the proper time to gently nose onto the runway takes some practice.

 

[Conscript]

If you had no experience and never been in a plane you'd never get off the ground let alone fly the thing. Might as well ask if you knew nothing about medicine and were offered 1 trillion to perform brain surgery, would you?
.

Equating brain surgery to flying a plane is like equating differential calculus to addition. Sure you need some sort of education to do either, but with a couple minutes of lessons, and the assistance of fingers, you can add 2+2.



I would absolute take this challenge, providing it was not contingent on the plane being operational upon landing.

 

[gorcorps]

A private jet and pilot are a lot less than 2 trillion. Why would somebody pay my sorry ass to try it?

 

[Red Squirrel]

With 2 trillion you could pretty much build a full blown guarded fortress in the middle of nowhere. Buy several cottages around the same area to act as decoys, and guard those too.

As for brain surgery, it depends what kind of surgery, if it's to remove a tumor or something, then just dig around in there until you see something that does not look normal and cut it out, easy as pie! Survival not guarantee.

 

[JulesMaximus]

If it's a small Cessna, yea, I could probably do it.

Of course, it would take you a week.

 

[Imp]

I'll do it for less if you give me an ejection seat. Slightly less with parachute.