Question: *There is [another question](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/8986) about airliners and if someone not qualified could land them. My question is about the steps I should take to stay alive in a small GA plane.*

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Let say a friend of mine invites me aboard a small aircraft (like Cessna 172 or equivalent).  

At some point my pilot friend passes out for some reason. What should I do considering the following: 

* I'm not a pilot.
* I'm seated in the co-pilot seat.
* I spent hundreds of hours on Flight Simulator (a few years ago).
* I've been initiated to fly a small aircraft (1 session covering the very basics), but no take-off/landing exercises.
* The weather is good.
* Aircraft is in good condition.
* The tank is full.
* Area has ATC and I know how to operate the radio.

This is my guess:

1. Hold the plane's level and heading
2. Slap my friend to try to wake him up
3. Send "Mayday" asking for assistance and technical guidance
4. Try to follow ATC instructions as well as I can

Does this look good? What should be done differently?

Answer: 
Step 1 not mentioned so far: keep the unconscious pilot from slumping forward into the controls. Their body pushing the yoke in would be a bad thing at this juncture. Cinch up on the shoulder harness and hang the flight bag strap or something similar on the pilot's forehead, with the bag hanging behind the seat.

Then do all the other things in the excellent answers here.

Many years ago I had my wife take a one-day course on exactly this scenario, called the Non-Pilot Pinch Hitters course. I don't know if it's still offered anywhere, but I found that AOPA has a [flash version online](http://flash.aopa.org/asf/pinch_hitter/swf/flash.cfm?keycode=FX07CRS&offercode=FX07CRS). It is most important to familiarize your flying companion ahead of time (assuming it's not a dog) with the radio and how to keep the wings level.

Here is the checklist from the AOPA course:

[![pinch hitter checklist](https://i.stack.imgur.com/7J3vx.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/7J3vx.png)
The feel of the controls is one of the things that you will really have to get your head round really quickly if this is the first time you have touched them. 

You don't move the controls you just apply a little bit of pressure, unlike a flight sim which has a totally unrealistic feel on the controls, and this alters with the airspeed of the aircraft. You have to be able to handle the aircraft quite precisely to be able to safely land, whereas most people even with flight sim experience take quite a few hours of instruction to be safe enough to go solo.

I read about a crash in the UK where the pilot was incapacitated and the passenger had been shown how to bail out. He couldn't get the hood open because it was heavy and the aircraft hit the ground with him clawing at the hood. All he needed to do was pull the stick back and he would have had more time.

I would say, feeling the controls, just try to get the aircraft level and under control and at a constant speed, will be more difficult than you think it might be, and also to stay calm so you can think and relate to what air traffic are saying. This is a lot easier said than done given that you are just about to die if you do something wrong. 

Just a small thing like not already talking to air traffic and not knowing the emergency frequency (or not knowing where the transmit button is) could panic you and ruin your whole day, or pulling the mixture back instead of the throttle. There are loads of things that could go wrong in real life even though you can fly the sim through a keyboard.

On the other hand if you can reach the ground under control at the correct (slowest safe) speed - about 1.2 - 1.3 times the stall speed, you don't need to speak to anyone or do anything else, the chances are you could live, especially if you reach the ground on an airport where there are emergency services to extract you from the aircraft. But then, you might know the stall speed in the sim, how do you really know it in the real aircraft you are in at the time? None of this is as easy as you think!