How to Land a Commercial Transport Airplane

A commercial transport airplane or airliner is a large plane carrying passengers and cargo. If there is an emergency and no one else can land the airplane, you may have to land the airplane. Fortunately, most commercial aircraft can land themselves with an auto-land device.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Contact air traffic control. Tune the radio to 121.5. Give out information, such as the kind of airplane, how many passengers and your flight number.

2. Prepare the cabin for landing. Tell the passengers to stow their baggage, take their seats and put their seat belts on. Try to keep everyone calm and prevent panic.

3. Steer with the yoke. You can pull it left or right, forward or back. Try to find the thumb on the yoke so you don't have to pull as hard. The big red dial in the middle of the instrument panel is the altitude reading. You will want to check this often.

4. Pull back on the throttle to slow your descent. This is the handle to the right. Then put the planes flaps half down.

5. The airspeed dial is on the top left of the instrument panel. The numbers are in knots. You should slow the airplane down to 85 knots before putting your wheels down by using the lever with the wheel symbol.

6. Continue descending at 700 feet per minute. You want to come in at 135 miles per hour or 65 knots.

7. When you see the runway, line up the plane and keep the wings straight. Try to land on the runway and not before or after. Reduce the power and pull on the yoke to keep the plane level. Once the plane touches down, brake to a complete stop.