Aviation Stories
Aviation Stories
Hula girl on duty. This is a shot of the throttle and flap area in the Phenom 100 Marcio and I flew from Australia to Las Vegas two years ago. Notice the engine switches behind Hula Girl. That’s how easy this plane is to start. Just move the knob from stop to start to start the engine, it automatically moves to the run position. When you want to shut down just move the knob to stop. Flying is getting so easy pretty soon anyone can do it.
And at the other extreme you have the starting of a DC3 radial engine (on that other show) which looks like you need 3 hands. Even on takeoff you NEED the co-pilot to manage the engines. There’s also an old B-17 training video that’s used to teach pilots about flight operations and engine management in various configurations and it’s pretty surprising the amount of babysitting is required. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL-zRFEt9lI#t=17