Could you land the plane in an emergency? No!

[flydoc]

I wonder how far they’ve tested that. Some aircraft will ultimately disconnect the autopilot if not correctly configured for landing and at a very low level. Be a bit sad to be looking good, but then at 100’ have the autopilot dump it back into your hands, and very likely with a strong nose up out of trim situation as well (because some aircraft put in quite lot of nose up trim, as a safety measure in case of accidental disconnect). I see no reason not to put the gear down. The autothrottle will handle the drag change, and if you’re worried about the braking side of it, then many have some form of autobrake, which is a very simple dial selection.

The gear up rationale is based on the KISS principle and a desire to avoid touchdown bounces.
The possibility of a late, low unexpected autopilot disconnection like you describe would not be ideal and is something I’ll ask about.

 

[Seat0B]

These are always somewhat hilarious, but the number who think they could is surprising. I’d put the figure at a just a couple of percent, and they’d be young gamers

On a related note, when I went to a shooting range in the USA a couple of years back, I was asked if I’d ever shot before, and in what context. Being ex-military the answer was yes. That allowed me to access a wider range of weapons for my session. The operators commented on the number of young men that answered “yes on Call of Duty.”

They did not see that as actual experience, thank goodness.

Same with the gamers and landing the aircraft, I’d say for sure!

 

[Hvr]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/05/20/passengers-try-landing-plane-flight-simulator/

And the follow up story with people trying to land, using the simulator.

 

[Himeno]

Petter Hornfeldt (aka Mentour Pilot, a training captain for RyanAir) and Tom Scott (British educational youtuber) tested this out a few months ago. They got a 737 simulator and had Tom try to land while Petter was in another room acting as ATC. They did it twice. Once with no help and once with Petter giving instructions over the radio.

 

[justinbrett]

Petter Hornfeldt (aka Mentour Pilot, a training captain for RyanAir) and Tom Scott (British educational youtuber) tested this out a few months ago. They got a 737 simulator and had Tom try to land while Petter was in another room acting as ATC. They did it twice. Once with no help and once with Petter giving instructions over the radio.

I already posted this, post #3.