learning to fly aircraft , by playing video games

hey - this story :

news article

is something for the people who deny that the 9/11 hijackers could fly the aircraft

a criminal who taught himself to fly by playing video games

no access to real flight manuals , no formal training or instruction - just cunsumer grade flight sim games

relating this to 911 is on par with someone saying that kids can become trained killers from playing FPS video games. While you get the general concepts down it does not teach you how to fly. Also this kid seems pretty freaking talented/ironballs


[edit on 6-12-2009 by '___'omino]

reply to post by '___'omino


Eh I knew a bloke who crashed a helicopter three times.

He's still a pilot too, probably shouldn't be..but he is.



[edit on 6/12/09 by Chadwickus]

reply to post by ignorant_ape


as a pilot, flying the plane is the easy part. landing is where it gets tricky. and from reading that article it sounds like he hasnt mastered that art yet.
still the kid must have balls of steel.

Since then he has been accused of stealing other planes for hops around the islands in the Puget Sound, including another Cessna belonging to a disc jockey who vented his frustration on radio, saying: “He still doesn’t know how to land a plane in one piece.”

but another saying is any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, so hopefully he dosnt have a bad one. his life would be a great movie.

[edit on 6-12-2009 by TheRepublic]

reply to post by ignorant_ape


So you're claiming that because a kid learned to fly a "light aircraft" through a video game, that the 9/11 hijackers could fly commercial airliners?

reply to post by '___'omino


one of the planes he stole was in idaho - and he crashed it in seattle - thats a minimum of 400km

the article also alleges that he stole aircraft to get from one island to the others in the ppuget sounds area - implying sucessfull landings

so yes - it has relevance as it demostrates an individual wih no formal training / instruction mastering basic flight proceedures

while 9/11 conspiracy theorists continue to deny that hijackers who had pilots licences , and professional simulator training on the exact aircraft type in question could preform the most basic fligh manouvers

[edit on 6-12-2009 by ignorant_ape]

reply to post by ignorant_ape


I don't just want to be argumentative here but they didn't really imply successful landings in that article . . . . It read just the opposite of that to me.

This isn't 9/11 evidence either

reply to post by '___'omino


i got the same as you. the disk jockey that had his plane stolen lamented the fact the kid kept crashing them.

he flew the planes but crash landed them all.

why is everyone referring to the landing? The terrorists never made a good landing either, they crashed it into the towers. just saying..

I agree that flying an aircraft is possible from just a simulator, however to do maneuvers such as the one on the pentagon is just ludicrous.

You have to imagine them coming out of that turn, flying tree top level, being able to see or know where the Pentagon is miles away at the bottom of a ridge, treeline, highways, and a high-rise skyline- and then be able to miss the VDOT tower or fly above it, then drop down threading itself through 5 light poles, while missing the VDOT camera mast next to pole 1 and then fly low and level just a few feet above the lawn, skimming on it's belly into the first floor. That on it's face is implausible.

Google Video Link

reply to post by Sianara


I agree.

By the OP's logic; because a few friends and I redlined a old moped, back in our highschool days, we'd all be just fine hopping on a Suzuki Hayabusa and topping it out.

Just like a 50cc moped, and a 1,299cc Superbike; a small prop plane, and a multi-jet engined commercial airliner are two wildly different beasts.

[edit on 12/6/09 by redmage]

Most flight sims are pretty good these days with the onboard systems for commercial airliners. The way the sim teaches you to fly is not that different to doing it in real life if you follow the Tutorials that is.

I've flown a Cessna with no other experience than 20 hours or so over a couple of years playing with Microsoft's Flight Sim 2000. Sure I didn't land it as the owner wanted to show my friends something exciting, but I could have if I needed to.

While I'm on that particular Sim, I did as the "terrorists" were supposed to have done, which was to take off in a commercial jetliner and fly into the Towers. It was way too easy to do.

[edit on 6-12-2009 by Tayesin]

Barry Goldwater taught himself how to fly as a teenager. Once upon a time it was not unheard for guy to jump in a plane with no instructor time at all. I would assume they had read up on aerodynamics a bit, but maybe not.

While MSFS or X Plane isn't flying, it can certainly teach a person an awful lot about it. Today's sims can be very detailed if you want to spend the cash for addons like Captain Sim, Level D or Wilco Publishing, to name a few.

There are virtual airlines and virtual air controllers who take it all very seriously. I do not recall the guys name, but someone wrote a story on one of the sim websites about his experience in a real 737 sim. He was familiar with the 737 systems vis a vie a 737 addon for MSFS, I believe. He bought a small amount of time, an hour or two and the day came for his "flight".

It's been a while since I read this, but the guy shows up for his pre flight briefing and he mentioned the fact that he had this 737 addon for MSFS.

Even though he was paying through the nose for this experience, the instructor was dismissive of him and suggested that he not try anything complicated, just a bit of steering around at a safe altitude and speed.

The author was adamant however. Anyway, to make a long story short, the guy ends up flying approaches and shooting ILS approaches successfully.

The company rep/instructor in the sim with him seemed irked by the authors success, and kept adding wind and other things and he finally did miss an approach I think, but he did very well. I'll go look for a link now because I can already hear the cries of BS.

Well it took me about 15 minutes, but i found it.

www.flightsim.com...

It's a good read and only one page long.

Today's desktop sims have come a long way. IMHO they would make a transition from sim to 172/152 solo much quicker for those with experience on them than those with no sim time. This is assuming of course that one is taking the lessons offered by the desktop sim seriously. I am not suggesting that an eight year old can play pilot on the computer and develop skills and knowledge.

I used to be in the camp that said no way did these hijackers fly those planes. But, if I can read a manual so can they. It's hard to imagine anyone committing suicide in a plane, but then I am reminded of the Japanese kamikazes, so.....

I don't know what the hell happened on 9-11. I still have trouble with the way the buildings collapsed. But I see no viable alternative to the fact that two 767s hit the WTC. Remote control is all but impossible on that model of plane. And if someone accepts that the two planes had pilots on board.....it points to hijackers willing to die.

But I still cannot cross that gulf to believing the OS, not yet. I wish this change guy I voted for would reopen the investigation, but then as Dana Carvey would say, monkeys might fly out of my butt too.

[edit on 7-12-2009 by Aircow]

Originally posted by redmage
So you're claiming that because a kid learned to fly a "light aircraft" through a video game, that the 9/11 hijackers could fly commercial airliners?

Sounds like it. Add in the terrorists had formal flight school training, formal in-flight training, had pilots licenses, had heavy jet simulator experience, plus had the advantage of flying aircraft that had hydraulically-boosted and computer enhanced flight controls and state-of-the-art navigation systems tied into autopilot systems that could have flown them to the *very* point where they impacted.

It is not difficult for anyone with the rudiments of flying to aviate an airliner.

It was easy.

reply to post by redmage

ANA 61 in 1999. It was a 747-48D with 503 souls onboard. About 25 minutes after take-off a 28 year old man with no formal training used a knife to force his way into the cockpit, where he killed one pilot and took control of the aircraft. He descended to 300 meters at one point. When asked why he did it he said he wanted to fly under the Rainbow Bridge like on his flight sim.