(dramatic music)
Pilot Robert Harris has challenged us
to an emergency landing scenario.
I've been flying for 37 years.
My plane is a Piper Arrow II.
Within this scenario, the pilot
has suddenly gone unconscious.
And we only have 15 minutes' worth of fuel.
So within that 15 minutes, we have to
take control of the airplane, maintain
and control our altitude.
Bank and glide the plane towards the runway.
And then prep for descent so we can
get the plane safely on the ground.
And I'm going first. It's going to be awesome.
So Becky and I came out to Princeton Airport in New Jersey,
where Becky and I are going to go head to head
in the emergency landing challenge.
(aggressive rock music)
(suspenseful music)
So in straight and level flight,
we want to maintain altitude.
If we find the altitude increasing,
we need to lower the nose by pushing the yoke forward.
If we find the altitude decreasing,
we need to raise the nose a little bit
by pulling the yoke backwards,
just a little bit.
It's such an exhilarating feeling;
you finally have the controls in your hands.
Being a passenger as Josh is flying,
trying to act like everything's fine,
but I want to die.
Flying this plane feels lot like me driving a car:
I feel confident and I feel safe.
No one else does.
The controls are so sensitive;
every tiny, subtle movement affects the plane.
I'm a little too strong, so when I try to push forward
the nose goes down too much, and when I pull back
I pull up too much.
I love that that's the way, you're a "little too strong"!
He had no finesse.
I want to know how mad do pilots get
when you see movies where people jump into a cockpit
and it's just like super easy for them.
You know that is not what it's like at all.
What's crazy too is that there are real life stories
where people have done this.
To turn, we need to put the airplane into a bank.
The ailerons are what do that,
and we control the ailerons with the yoke.
Right now I'm little bit uncomfortable
in the backseat while Becky's flying.
He had fear.
That's not how I would personally describe it.
I'm a little nervous, let's be real about it.
Like, Becky's flying the airplane.
Your stomach goes through flips up in the air,
so I was having some troubles.
Shallow turn.
As Becky's going through this,
I'm seeing her handle this stuff like a boss.
(dramatic music)
And I'm going to have to step my game up
because she's killing it.
I'm destroying it!
With today's flight simulators,
you can actually learn a lot about flying.
Landing a plane is one of the most difficult things to learn
in a flight simulator.
If you know about the Barefoot Bandit,
he was able to steal airplanes,
fly them for hundreds of miles,
but he invariable crashed every airplane he ever stole.
For step 3, first we had to initiate
radio communication with the tower.
Then we had to decrease our altitude
and retard the throttle to slow our speed.
Then we pulled the landing gear and the flaps.
As you're coming down towards the runway,
you've gotten yourself in that position,
you're ready to do it, you know here we are;
you still feel this rush of this kind of,
a little bit of fear hits you.
Because we've never done this before.
But it's fun though.
(dramatic orchestral music)
(freaky dance music)
It's so-- I needed this.
I want it to be known that I needed this.
I'm happy for Becky.
You didn't let me win.
I've got to be honest; I'm proud of her.
Like, she was so--
Don't even give me that, no I want you to be sad
because I crushed you.
I'm not sad; I support my fellow people,
and I like to see people rising up.
She needed this though; let's be real.
We all saw the last video, right?
You know what I mean?
I very much give it up to all the pilots out there.
Without a doubt it made me have so much more respect
for pilots.
I was just a little too strong on the controls;
it takes me time to learn to finesse
certain things sometimes, so.
"A little too strong."
A little too strong. I'm done.
And that's where we're going to leave it.
(peppy techno music)