Whenever I see a video of a place landing, the pilot has one hand on the steering thing which is moving back and forth like crazy. Are planes basically landing themselves? How do the pilots adjust for wind etc?
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When flying manually, a pilot will pitch and roll the aircraft with one hand (via the yoke/stick), yaw it with the feet (via rudder pedals), and alter the thrust with the other hand (via thrust levers/throttle quadrant). This doesn’t change on approach or landing.
Adjusting for wind is done by either offsetting the nose of the aircraft into wind by an amount sufficient to prevent sideways movement off the centreline of the runway, or by rolling the aircraft into wind slightly (and usually a mixture of the two).
Many airliners have auto-land capability, or can at least get down very low before manual input is required, but pilots still regularly fly manual approaches to keep skills sharp.
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