^^ should I add a more engineering-level explanation of the AHRS box itself to the picture?

@SMSvonderTann eh, while I agree that it is clear what it is being asked, I do not agree that it should be reopened. As Pondlife says, pert 66 is not a short essay, it is a massive regulation. Paraphrasazing its entirety is not a good fit for an SE site

@Shalvenay why not?

I see DeltaLima is winning the HNQ lottery today

@Fiksdal With no training what-so-ever it would only be possible to do if you could somehow get a pilot to get your fairly close, preferably at the same altitude. Descending a large plane would be very hard for someone who doesn't even have a basic concept of how a large jet works.

But I think the problem for you stems back further than just that. Just getting into the cockpit is ridiculously hard these days (I mean, just look at the Germanwings accident if you need an example.) Even if you had a weapon, I'm not entirely certain it would be possible.

In fact I'm finding it difficult (thankfully) to imagine a legitimate scenario where an airliner could be hijacked.

Granted, I imagine you could probably make up something that makes some amount of sense to the lay reader...

@JayCarr well the original context involved tim travel to pre-9/11 time

@JayCarr Yes, @ratchetfreak is correct. This fictional story is set pre-9/11

Thanks for your responses on the ability to maneuver!

he could have simply copied his old answer, but then I would sign this up as another case of rep fishing, as he should have voted to close as duplicate

some minor edits have been introduced though

@ratchetfreak eh, minor

yeah minor enough that they are essentially the same answer

@Federico I dunno. I don't really see anything wrong with it. The questions are different, so I wouldn't say it's a dupe. The answer happens to be pretty much the same. There's a lot of stuff like that on here where a unique question just happens to be covered by an old answer. Besides, I seriously doubt Peter has any need for rep at this point.

@JayCarr When you were talking about descending being hard for an untrained person, are you talking about from cruise altitude?

@TomMcW the tooltip for a question closed as duplicate is "this question already has an answer here: <link>" and personally in this case I think that while formulated differently, the substance of the questions is quite similar (and is not a dishonor to ask a duplicate)

@TomMcW Yeah, I think someone with 0 experience or concept of what they are doing would probably not realize you need to pull the throttle back to descend and, quite likely, would point the nose down to sharply even provided they did full close the throttle.

Over stressing the aircraft can become a real issue at that point, not to mention the effectiveness of the controls would be somewhat reduced.

It's not necessarily fatal, I admit, but it would be pretty darned dangerous...

Especially if they decided they were going too fast and just jerked the yoke back to try and arrest the decent...things might maybe break at that point.

especially when they start looking for the "airbrake"

@JayCarr From cruise, yeah, that would be a problem. They'd almost certainly overspeed. He specified to me, though, that the hijacker would make the pilot fly him within visual range of his target, then take over and crash it from there. That's really about the only way to make the scenario plausible. They'd have to be no more than a couple thousand feet and roughly lined up with the target. Any maneuvering required would majorly increase their chances of failure.

@Federico Yeah. I wouldn't disagree it being a dupe since it links to a place where the question is properly answered. I'm just of the opinion that we shouldn't be too trigger happy with the VTC.

@abelenky @RalphJ seriously?

no, seriously is exactly what it isn't

Seriously, I see nothing wrong with a little fun on a question that is destined to be closed and likely deleted.

If, by some miracle, the question gets redeemed, I would remove my answer.... but geesh, grow a sense of humor.

@abelenky I have a sense of humor, it fits well in the comments and in chat, not in the answers

I needed an answer to post a picture. Pictures don't appear in comments.

And since the poster's name was "Bob", and i had that image handy, it worked out pretty funny.

I guess you had to be there

Pics, or it didn't happen.

Yeah, if I thought the question was going to stay around, and be part of the permanent history of aviation.S.E., then I would take it seriously... I want the board to be "clean-and-sharp" looking for the most part.

Because I'm confident that so-called question is going no where, I don't mind having having fun with it.

@TomMcW Even then I'm not so sure. Are we talking about someone with no experience? Do they realize that turning the "wheel" (yoke) doesn't turn the plane like it would turn a car, but rolls it? Its not like guiding a large plane in the right direction is super easy...

And further, just how far will the pilot go before they realize what you are doing and start resisting?

At any rate, there are a lot of variables in a real world scenario. But, in fiction, eh... It's probably doable so why not?

@fooot Yes we do and don't you forget it!

@abelenky I don't see why anyone should have a problem with this. I'd agree with this statement for.....anyone who cares.

@abelenky Unfortunately, by having fun with the question you're also making fun of the person who asked it... I agree that the question is probably going nowhere, but I think there could be more 'gentle' ways to point a newcomer in the right direction.

@abelenky I posted a cartoon as an answer once because images don't show on comments. Somebody turned it into a comment though

If the poster had made any serious attempt to participate in the site, I might not mock him. But, geesh... he posted a non-question, linked to a Facebook picture, with the title "Why a wing flies!!!!".... anyone think we'll actually see him again? Anyone think I chased off a future member of the community?

I wonder why yall are taking him more seriously than he takes us. He treated us like a joke, I don't see an issue with reciprocating.

I'm not saying I disagree with the probable outcome... but you never know. Even if we hate fun we should still be nice : )