Cited on HN 3 times, 2013–2016, never outright recommendedscore 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN cites it as real evidence for whether a non-pilot can land a plane, whenever the topic comes up.
A man with no flight instruction and only desktop flight simulator experience attempts to take off and land a Cessna 172, with a commercial airline instructor aboard who gives no help. The flight came out of a prop bet.
“this actually happened and you can see a video of it here” (HN, 2016)
The answer is yes. Someone actually did this experiment. [this video] But it's pretty challenging. Today's simulators are pretty good, but there's something about having your life actually on the line that can't be captured by a sim.
Someone actually landed a plane with only sim experience.
You might not want to skim through the forums (though I find the discussion interesting). In the end, this actually happened and you can see a video of it here [this video] EDIT: and rdancer also linked to the final report, see his post, thanks :)
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