I have almost 1500 hours of flight experience and almost all of them as an airline pilot. To get things in order I fly Dash 8s. An incredibly powerful aircraft for its size.
In my flight school training I used to fly a Cessna 150 and it was the primary aircraft I flew in. I took my multi engine training in a Piper Seneca 2. Here is the deal. I am not a dumb person. Having collected many hours in formal flying in my country’s flag carrier I would say a private pilot who is used to flying small planes and a Microsoft flight simulator ‘pilot’ has same capabilities as a non pilot in terms of flying a large powerful transport category aircraft. Why else do you think a pilot needs a 1 month and a half extensive training to get type certified to fly a large airplane?
One thing about airliners is that they are extremely powerful. This makes speed management incredibly difficult. When I used to fly the C 150, the rule on approach to land is very simple. Pitch for speed and power for altitude. If your speed is dropping you push the nose down and you get your speed and vice versa. If you are too low, you add power and the aircraft will gain altitude. The aircraft is so underpowered, small and light it works like a charm. When I flew the Dash 8 for the first time in the simualtor I realised how different it behaved to the GA aircraft I had flown before. Large aircraft have so much inertia that a simple pitch trick would not get you the required speed. As a matter of fact, if you pitch down you will lose altitude at an alarming rate without speed increasing by much. So, you need careful adjustment of power.
The other thing is getting the aircraft stabilised. In a Cessna you can correct the centre line right on the runway numbers. As it is light and nimble you can bring in corrections real late and still get the job done. In an airliner you need to get it stabilised a long way from the runway, if you want an accident free landing. As they are heavy and again due to inertia you cannot really correct a messed up alignment close to the runway.
Last factor is the flare to the landing. Large aircraft are very susceptible to tail strikes. So, you need be careful when flaring them. If you pull the control back like in a Cessna flare, you would most certainly hit the tail.
As Dash 8 pilot, I can fly that aircraft in an emergency with very little issues. I cannot guarantee that I could bring an A320 or a B737 to the ground as safe and sound. Similarly, I have doubts I could bring a smaller aircraft I have never flown before to the ground clean either. This takes me to the next point. Just because a person flies a large aircraft does not mean he could fly a smaller aircraft with ease. I know a story of a previous jet pilot who smashed a Dash 8 onto the ground on his first ever line flight in the aircraft. He landed so hard, that one of the main wheels of the aircraft shot through the wings. Moral of the story is every aircraft is different. That is why you need extra training and type ratings when you are going to fly a new airplane. You cannot apply the same flight principles to all aircraft because all of them are different.
Author – Anas Maaz
