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In the video below, a man takes off and lands in a Cessna 172, sans any actual plane-flying experience, and with his only training having taken place on desktop flight simulator programs.
Not recommended for the inexperienced : As the dialogue denotes, there’s still major differences between the two…
Courtesy of YouTuber Sparks, the video journal details the flyer’s decision to fly the flight pattern at Vegas airport with only some computer simulator flight training experience. As the introductory caption suggests, Sparks’ quandary is simple:
“Would a non-pilot, with no previous instruction or flight training, be able to take off, fly and land a private plane, based only on experience from a desktop flight simulator?”
According to Geekologie, it looks like that was very much the case — despite the fact that the Cessna aircraft has still been responsible for its share of deaths (among them, Buddy Holly and boxer Rocky Marciano).
As uploader Sparks notes, “This flight challenge occurs with no in-flight assistance, verbal or mechanical, nor any other aid from the flight instructor” (courtesy of him, there’s some captions that detail the dialogue).
Still he can be heard uttering along the decline towards landing, “This is waaaaay different than the simulator.” So before all you aspiring Red Barons get out there, maybe have at least a few hours of Flight Simulator 1.00 logged.
For a more thorough backstory on the long and the arduous planning involved, you can also visit Sparks’ blog via Forumserver here.
Jeff Nau – who has written 1264 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Jeff Nau is a main contributor to the Jace Hall Show covering pop culture and music trends in the nerd community. He has contributed to San Diego City Beat, 944, and Ill Literature, amongst others, and spends his spare time working as an artist and photographer.

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