Lasers,planes and high school geometry.

[Harry Potter]

what happens once you land?

Plane can land and come to a complete stand still on autopilot WITHOUT pilot intervention.

what if you need to go around?

Turn the wheel.

what about evasive manueveres?

Form Klingons? Guided missiles? Either way you're dead. (Unless you have blood-wine for the Klingons)

what is the capital of bulgaria?

Sofia

if a tree falls in the forest was it because it got hit by a laser beam...

Can I use my lifeline Eddie/(Insert name of Millionare host)?

otherwise they'd have BLIND pilots!

Adjust your mirrors.

[Crazy Cooter]

Sure you can (you're not supposed to though).  It's still only a class IIIa laser.  All your rods & cones are belong to us!

[danny_galaga]

what happens once you land?

Plane can land and come to a complete stand still on autopilot WITHOUT pilot intervention.

what if you need to go around?

Turn the wheel.

what about evasive manueveres?

Form Klingons? Guided missiles? Either way you're dead. (Unless you have blood-wine for the Klingons)

what is the capital of bulgaria?

Sofia

if a tree falls in the forest was it because it got hit by a laser beam...

Can I use my lifeline Eddie/(Insert name of Millionare host)?

otherwise they'd have BLIND pilots!

Adjust your mirrors.

hohoho! seriously though. not all planes have the same kind of equipment. not even all the air transport planes have everything YOU imagine they have. their are still a few DC10's flying around for instance. they had VERY basic systems. even with the latest planes i dont know that they can TAXI all the way to the apron on some sort of auto pilot. i might be wrong there. but why would you want to? pilots gotta do something! different planes have different equipment. the first plane mentioned i think was a cessna citation. i'm sure it has 3 axis auto pilot, but can it completely land itself and taxi to the ramp on its own?
evasive means avoiding other aircraft. i dont think there is any aircraft where you just hit the 'red' button in an emergency and everythings right!
and obviously an aircraft isnt a car. you dont just 'turn' the wheel!
anyway, i know you're being tongue in cheek but people seem to have this idea that everythings so automated that there is absolutely no danger. i get this magazine called 'australian flight safety' and my god! the accidents and near misses that happen! google 'gimli glider' for an utterly amazing near-miss story.

[danny_galaga]

oh, and the latest issue describes how a pilot avoided crashing after being hit by a guided missile in iraq! no refd button for him, he lost control of all three axis and guided the aircraft to a landing using only engines!

[Harry Potter]

what happens once you land?

Plane can land and come to a complete stand still on autopilot WITHOUT pilot intervention.

what if you need to go around?

Turn the wheel.

what about evasive manueveres?

Form Klingons? Guided missiles? Either way you're dead. (Unless you have blood-wine for the Klingons)

what is the capital of bulgaria?

Sofia

if a tree falls in the forest was it because it got hit by a laser beam...

Can I use my lifeline Eddie/(Insert name of Millionare host)?

otherwise they'd have BLIND pilots!

Adjust your mirrors.

hohoho! seriously though. not all planes have the same kind of equipment. not even all the air transport planes have everything YOU imagine they have. their are still a few DC10's flying around for instance. they had VERY basic systems. even with the latest planes i dont know that they can TAXI all the way to the apron on some sort of auto pilot. i might be wrong there. but why would you want to? pilots gotta do something! different planes have different equipment. the first plane mentioned i think was a cessna citation. i'm sure it has 3 axis auto pilot, but can it completely land itself and taxi to the ramp on its own?
evasive means avoiding other aircraft. i dont think there is any aircraft where you just hit the 'red' button in an emergency and everythings right!
and obviously an aircraft isnt a car. you dont just 'turn' the wheel!
anyway, i know you're being tongue in cheek but people seem to have this idea that everythings so automated that there is absolutely no danger. i get this magazine called 'australian flight safety' and my god! the accidents and near misses that happen! google 'gimli glider' for an utterly amazing near-miss story.

Yeah yeah. I know I was being a bit silly (with the last few questions) and I admit I did forget that in the States they still fly the DC-10s and other similar flying coffins which most probably haven't got the same level of automation as a 747 or something newer.

PS: I have heard the gimli glider story before. Thanks for reminding me though. That was one amazing landing. It just goes to show it's not about the hardware, it's about the user.
Here is a link for the story:
http://www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html

[danny_galaga]

and I admit I did forget that in the States they still fly the DC-10s and other similar flying coffins which most probably haven't got the same level of automation as a 747 or something newer.

and africa

[Harry Potter]

I may be wrong but wasn't there a telly movie based on this. I swear there was something on telly a while back about a plane landing on some racetrack.

Found it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113018/

The title says "Falling from the Sky: Flight 174", when in fact it was Flight 143. Apparently they changed the names and details for some reason.