A pilot has opened up about what it is really like to fly an aircraft – and how it differs from driving a car.
When we are going on holiday, most of us don’t think much about’s going on in the cockpit of the plane. We get on a plane, enjoy some refreshements and land in a new destination ready for some fun. Whereas pilots have a big responsibility on their shoulders for every journey they take.
Becoming a pilot takes years of dedication and those have the role need to have strong spatial awareness and the ability to deal with high stress situations. A former army veteran in the US turned commerical pilot has been sharing what life is like from the cockpit on TikTok, and answering questions from passengers.
Recently, one intruiged fan asked if aeroplanes have gas pedals like cars do. Explaining how it works, the plane flyer who is known as @PerchPoint on the app, said: “We do have pedals on both the captain and officer side. We have two pedals – right and left foot. But they control the rudder which is for directional control.”
The pilot added: “And they [the pedals] also kind of pivot forward a little bit so we can control the brakes. We can step on the left pedal for left brakes or the right pedal for right brakes. That’s for like directional control or using both pedals to slow down when we land.”
“There’s lots of switches and buttons but no gas pedals,” he clarified. Explaining how pilots get the aircraft to go forward, he said that two or four thrust levers are used by hand. “We take them both and push them forward – one for the left engine and one for the right,” he explained. If the plane has three or four engines, it has three or four levers.
The pilot also explained that the windshields on planes are different to cars. He explained that the windscreens are separated in half, so a pilot and co-pilot use their own window side and the windscreen wipers can be use separately for each windscreen.
He also noted that the only difference between a captain and first officer pilot is the captain has the final say on decisions, but together they both control the aircraft.
In another video, the pilot said he will often get asked in an airport informations about flights from passengers – even if he is not flying their plane. He said: “The general population overstimulates what pilots and aircrew actually know. If anyone stops and asks me for directions to their gate or maybe just information about their flight, I am more than happy to help because obviously we are more familiar with the system.
“But, in the grand scheme of it all, we don’t have special access or necessarily more information to someon’e else’s flight other than our own than anyone else would have about their flight.”
The pilot admits that he often has to use Google to find information about flights.