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Suppose I am a passenger in a small, non-commercial plane (e.g. at most 8 seats), and the pilot suddenly dies or is otherwise incapacitated mid-flight. Suppose further that nobody else on the plane knows the first thing about flying, or that I were the only other person on the plane. I understand the basic physics of flying, and have been in airplane cockpits before for a ride, but never piloted one. Cockpits are an intimidating bank of switches and dials, and I imagine I'd have very little time to acquaint myself with them experimentally in an emergency.

What minimalistic, general information should I know in an emergency situation to try to land a small plane?

I'm looking for perhaps 5–10 fast-and-simple rules-of-thumb that would be useful in a life-or-death situation, yet easy to remember.

A great answer might include 2–3 sentence answers for things such as:

• Where might I expect to find certain, key controls?


• How could I contact air traffic control?


• What kind of terrain should I aim for, if possible?


• What rate of descent is too dangerous?


• How to deploy landing gear? (What might this button look like?!)


• How to control the aircraft speed, and how slow is too slow?


• How might I determine a good angle of attack?

That's way too complicated a question. The best thing you can do is get MS Flight Simulator and learn to fly one of the light planes on it. It even has lessons in it. You can easily learn enough to survive the real deal if that ever happened and you had access to the controls. Instructors these day frequently get new students who've spent time with FSX and are surprisingly advanced right at the start.

Other than that, the most important thing for a passenger to know is how to tune the communications radio to the emergency frequency 121.5 and how to broadcast on it. This will get you in contact with the nearest air traffic unit, wherever you are (they all monitor it) and you would be able to be talked down. It's been done a number of times.

Have your host show you how to control the plane in level flight, enough to keep in level flight do basic turns (very easy). If you can do that, and can get ATC on the radio on your own, you'll be able to make it down. You'll be steered to a suitable airport with a nice big runway and told what to do step by step. No worries.

ATC has successfully talked down folks with zero experience in GA planes, and if there's one thing you need to learn, it's how to call ATC so they can give you that help. Any pilot would be happy to teach you this, and it should only take a few minutes while you're sitting in the plane before departure. Anything you know beyond that will make ATC's help a lot easier to understand and get you safely on the ground that much faster, but that's the bare minimum.

My recommendation is a "discovery flight" at a nearby flight school; that will teach you far more of the basic skills you'd need to survive than days of looking for tips online. Flight sim time would save money if you're interested in becoming a pilot, but otherwise I wouldn't bother; you need to actually sit in a real plane, touch real buttons and knobs and levers, and feel how a real plane reacts--with someone at your side explaining the key points along the way. I learned every one of the things on your list and more, plus made my first landing, in that one hour lesson.

FWIW, it doesn't matter if that discovery flight is in a Cessna and your emergency happens in a Mooney, or whatever. For light planes, most of the differences border on cosmetic for emergency purposes. Once you know what to look for and why, it shouldn't take much to recognize the important controls and instruments in any other light plane. Again, any pilot you're flying with should be happy to explain the differences if you don't pick them up on your own; an instructor is only needed when you're starting from zero.

If you'll be flying GA a lot, particularly in the same plane and/or with the same pilot, look into "Pinch Hitter" courses; they'll cost quite a bit more than a simple discovery flight, but they're worth every penny if you'll be flying often enough for real concerns about emergencies.

flying a plane, specially a small one requires a lot a practice, but if you find your self in this situation, and assuming is a small prop, complex twin engine aircraft (Variable prop, retractable landing gear).

Where might I expect to find certain, key controls?
all the controls are in the front panel, 3 levers in the mid control panel, black for thrust, blue for prop, red for fuel, don't touch red and blue, move black, back to reduce power and forward to increase

How could I contact air traffic control?
usually on the yoke is a small button (ptt) press it and talk, or by the microphone, set on the radio the frequency 121.50

What kind of terrain should I aim for, if possible?
try to maintain level wings, aim for an airport

What rate of descent is too dangerous?
try to maintain between 500 to 700 fpm rate of descent

How to deploy landing gear? (What might this button look like?!)
depends on the aircraft, usually black rounded knob on the panel, usually on the right side, it moves up and down, look for it.

How to control the aircraft speed, and how slow is too slow?
the airspeed indicator has colors, try to maintain the speed on the green band

How might I determine a good angle of attack?
it depends on the speed, and configuration, but a good indication is the rate of descent and constant speed, aim for 500 fpm descent maintaining speed on the green band

safe flights