system

Is there a story of piloting technique in this case?

On speed, trimmed, start descent at a good point and adjust a bit with throttle?

(Does the video and other interviews give details? I do not do videos.)

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system

If you go to Today.com you can read the article about the interview.

When the pilot went unconscious the plane begin a spiralling descent. The passenger reached around the pilot in the seat to pull back and level the wings. When asked how he knew what to do, he guessed it was “common sense from being on airplanes”.

system

And, with absolutely no prior aviation experience, he reached around the pilot, took his headset, found the PTT switch and calmly conversed with ATC to a normal landing?

Pull the other one.

He has either had a lesson sometime in the past, flown Flight Simulator/Xplane, or at least watches Mentor Pilot on YouTube. I’m not buying absolute novice status.

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system

PS. Good for him either way. Well flown.

system

I’m not buying it. No way. Not for a second. For all of the recurrent training mandated by the FAA, insurance companies, etc. and every pilot out there knows how fast skills diminish when not flying on a regular basis, this guy with no experience whatsoever lands a caravan under what can be called extreme duress. Ahhhh… no. No, no, no no no. No.

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system

Miracle of Palm Beach?

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system

But is it loggable?

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system

Maybe he has seen a YouTube video. Or a movie. Believe it or not, putting on a headset and talking is not hard to figure out. The yoke and throttle on any airplane are fairly prominent and intuitive. Anyone who has ever seen an airplane knows the phrase “pull up.”
Some cars have different gear shifts and light switches, yet I’m sure you could manage to drive them with minimal transition training. If your life depends on it…

system

Let’s hear the tapes. It sounds like the controller AND Mr. Harrison both had their acts together.

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system

Maybe he saw the movie “Airplane”.

system

I’m not sure how much is recorded. As I understand it, the pax-pilot didn’t want to mess with the glass cockpit to change to a better radio frequency for fear he’d lose all communication.

So the CFI called him on his cell-phone.

I don’t think that conversation was recorded. But the inherent duplex nature of cell-phone communication versus simplex comm radios means the CFI and pax-pilot could communicate more easily and rapidly. This probably contributed to the successful outcome.