menu Home chevron_right
SCIENCE

Flying a plane badly, on purpose.

Tom Scott | September 8, 2026



At the National Flying Laboratory Centre, I try to keep my sense of direction, and my stomach contents. | 🌍 AD: Get the best deal on NordVPN with next-gen antivirus: https://nordvpn.com/tomscott | England series map: https://www.tomscott.com/england/

🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)
❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: https://lateralcast.com/ https://youtube.com/lateralcast/
👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: https://youtube.com/techdif

Written by Tom Scott

Comments

This post currently has 44 comments.

  1. @solentcoastersuk

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    As a former student of Southampton Uni I got to experience the Cranfield Flying Lab flight, and worked alongside these guys for two subsequent years of their annual flights at SOU airport. So great to see Tom involved with something so familiar!

  2. @John-pn4rt

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    that's why fast jet pilots are taught to trust their instruments because pulling G and moving your head – such as when they are looking for a target in a dogfight plays hell with the human senses.

  3. @cochazza

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    Thanks for reminding me how I failed to stress the "don't turn your head" enough the first time ever I carried a passenger flying on a glider… let's only say it didn't end cleanly as your lesson… I keep your opinion on the matter in even higher regard😅

  4. @KivaBird

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    Yes I did experience a where's-my-seat sudden drop in a commercial flight and there was plenty of screaming and 4 or so children were bawling though most of the rest of the flight.

  5. @safieq

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    Flying at Cranfield in 2015 was absolutely one of the highlights of my time at uni as an aerospace engineering student, especially as I didn’t end up in the aerospace industry after graduation! Thank you Tom for this unexpected blast from the past!

  6. @UnshavenStatue

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    to be clear, the drop was due to aggressive stall recovery, not due to the stall itself. in training type aircraft (skyhawks, not saabs) you almost cruise while stalled if you try hard enough (not quite but it's fairly benign in straight wing trainers)

  7. @TheTfrules

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    This is the first time I've seen Tom do something genuinely cool and been able to say that I've done it too! I was flown this exact regime back in my aerospace engineering course at Swansea.

  8. @richardsmith5641

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    That brings back memories!
    At the end of my undergraduate apprenticeship, my company sent me to Cranfield for an MSc in Aircraft Design – a two year course, but as my first degree was aeronautical engineering, I went straight into the second year. The lab aircraft was a Jetstream the (1977/8), and a few hours tuition in a light aircraft was included – a Beagle Pup. I wish I had been told about that earlier, then I would have tried to save up to be able to continue tuition up to PPL during the course.

  9. @fotohole

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    Worth noting that you can fly a drone in and around airports with prior authorisation from ATC. Since you were the reason you were filming there, they would've allowed you to fly. It's also not a busy airport so it really wouldn't have been a big deal at all.

  10. @Trevor_Austin

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    At 60º of bank, in a balanced turn, you will always pull 2 g. The stick pusher doesn’t produce negative g, just reduced. Negative g is when the contents of the carpet get in your eyes.

  11. @Heitzy

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    10:10 Is probably the best "layman's" explanation of a stall I've ever heard. I'm a pilot myself, and when I take freinds and family flying I occasionally try to show and explain what a stall is and I don't think I could ever explain it that well without getting too technical! As always, incredible work Tom 🙂

  12. @SpaceOtter96

    September 8, 2026 at 10:08 pm

    So I had worked for GE before they did the split to the 3 separate companies and I still vividly remember one of the all company calls that they do where each of the 3 CEOs would talk about the state of that section of the company. When the one for aviation (or now Aerospace company split) came on he started his spiel with "I always remember talking to the engineers of the planes and they continue to tell me that we still don't truly know what causes planes to fly. We know some things but not all. It's a lot of trial and error" and as an engineer, that always sticks with me. 😂 It still never changed my mind though on flying. I don't mind flying at all, I just naturally get motion sick easily which I hate. Ironically though, the more I can feel the plane move, the less I get sick. My husband is the opposite in his motion sickness. So the small 737s like you were on, I LOVE being on those planes because I can very easily feel the movement. I also have always felt more subtle movements than most people, even in cars and it was always sort of baffling to others on how sensitive my body was the movement. So the more often I can fly on the smaller planes, I do. I also now live in CO so it is extremely common to run into some turbulence getting in and out of the Denver airport. Recently, not only did we have the normal turbulence but we also had the usual afternoon popup thunderstorms. We were still cleared to go through the storm instead of around it and dear god, that was A LOT of turbulence. I honestly think the only reason we didn't have people freaking out is we had this group of kids that were so funny making comments during the whole batch of turbulence. The pilots were handling it amazingly but there were quite a few times we dropped some and you could feel that negative G-force. It was probably my most eventful flight I've ever been on.

Leave a Reply





This area can contain widgets, menus, shortcodes and custom content. You can manage it from the Customizer, in the Second layer section.

 

 

 

  • play_circle_filled

    92.9 : The Torch

  • play_circle_filled

    AGGRO
    'Til Deaf Do Us Part...

  • play_circle_filled

    SLACK!
    The Music That Made Gen-X

  • play_circle_filled

    KUDZU
    The Northwoods' Alt-Country & Americana

  • play_circle_filled

    BOOZHOO
    Indigenous Radio

  • play_circle_filled

    THE FLOW
    The Northwoods' Hip Hop and R&B

play_arrow skip_previous skip_next volume_down
playlist_play