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While the Caravan is not small, and has complicated navigation systems, it is actually a good airplane for a complete novice to try to land. There are several reasons for this.

First, it is aerodynamically very stable. With the high wing and large control surfaces, it isn't affected by air currents as much as a smaller airplane. The "pilot" didn't have to work as hard to keep the airplane level and headed in the right direction.

Second, the landing gear is "fixed" so it is always down and ready to land without any action by the pilot. The landing gear is of the nosewheel type, which tends to roll in a straight line. Once the airplane was on the ground, keeping it under control was as easy as it gets.

Third, the turbine engine is controlled by one power lever, rather than separate controls for throttle, fuel mixture, and propeller pitch. This makes it very easy to adjust the power as advised by the controller.

The Caravan only needs a few hundred feet of ground roll on landing. Since the runway was more than 10 times the length necessary, the "pilot" had a great amount of space to work with, so he didn't have to be precise about where he touched down.

Since the airplane was very lightly loaded, with only two on board instead of 10, the landing speed and ground roll required was less than it might have been. I think the airplane was landed with the landing flaps up, which also reduced the workload on the "pilot." Keeping the flaps up increased the landing speed, but not by enough to matter given the long runway available.

None of this takes away from the performance of the "pilot." He did a remarkable job, starting with figuring out how to talk to Air Traffic Control, and everything else after that!

Kudos to the Controller, who also did a remarkable job. I'd like to know if the controller is a pilot.
 
Yes, on above . Awesome job on staying calm . Glad it was a Cessna , same sausage different length kinda of handling. Two things o read is that the passenger rode right seat few times before , so not completely clueless and that the controller who talked him down is a CFI , so both things helped .
 

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