Fear of flying About Automatic pilots

Automatic pilots can fly planes more accurately than humans can

Do you have a fear of flying and worry about how safe the plane is? Do you worry about things like automatic pilots? You'll be please to know that modern automatic pilots can fly a plane more accurately and more consistently than any human pilot can. But autopilots can't think, so there'll always be a pilot on your plane for the foreseeable future.

Shallow fog means using the automatic pilot

Even on a bright sunny day, fearful flyers imagine that a plane is balanced on a knife edge when it's flying. On cloudy days they are ready to  go into panic mode about the extra dangers they imagine. Imagine such a situation and then leaving it all to a computer!

But the fact is is that flying is straightforward, it requires skills, special skills but no more than any other job. Before I explain what autopilots do I need to explain what the real pilots do.

Unfortunately Hollywood has done pilots no favours by suggesting that we're all like the fighter pilot in films like Top Gun. They portray pilots as steely-eyed super heroes whereas pilots are just people who fly planes. Sure some pilots are different from others but then so are train drivers or accountants.

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