When Does Indy Learn To Fly?

This just dawned on me the other day while watching The Last Crusade: When Indy and his dad escape the zeppelin in the Nazi fighter plane Indiana comments that he knows how to fly, but not land. Why then, a few years earlier is he so dumbfounded when confronted by the empty cockpit of Lao Che's plane? I guess I'm just wondering when Dr. Jones finds the time for flight lessons between ToD and LC.

Most likely. Perhaps the incident on Lao Che's plane inspired Indy to take some flying lessons once he returned to the States, but then he just never got around to finishing them, thus knew the basics of flying but never quite mastered landing.

In the German version of the official novel of ToD, the case is different (don't know if it's just a bad translation)

when willi asks him "Can you fly a plane?" he first replys with the answer we all know: "No, can you?" But then he immediately says: "Just kidding!"

In the two novels that Martin Caidin wrote,Indy takes some flying lessons.

Maybe it's a function of the type of plane ? The plane he flies in "Last Crusade" is a small biplane, probably without very sophisticated controls. The aircraft in "Temple Of Doom" is a big trimotor; and who knows how the pilots might have sabotaged it before leaving ? Maybe after the incident in "Temple Of Doom" Indy went out of his way to have flying lessons, but he only had a few basic lessons under his belt by the time of "Last Crusade", and thus was not confident about landing !

metalinvader said:

In the two novels that Martin Caidin wrote,Indy takes some flying lessons.

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Yeah, those have a terrible reputation among Indy fans, even though they're really not as bad as people say they are. Those take place 5 years before ToD though, so that wouldn't explain the fact that he doesn't know how to fly in ToD

I believe the thought occured to Indy to take flying lessons as the rubber dingy was heading toward earth. He probably thought that if he could master flying a rubber dingy with ease, then the controls of a plane shouldn't be too dissimilar.

I always took "fly? Yes. Land? No!" as a cloy reference to Temple of Doom where he manages to fly the plane (until it runs out of fuel) but of course it crashes. So yes... he's "flown" before... but never landed.

Temple - 1935, Crusade 1938. Where is the problem? You can learn how to fly in 3 years.

Flannery10 said:

Yeah, those have a terrible reputation among Indy fans, even though they're really not as bad as people say they are. Those take place 5 years before ToD though, so that wouldn't explain the fact that he doesn't know how to fly in ToD

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I always thought those books were terrible and I could never get through either of them.I'd give them a second read though,I really should!

Falco09 said:

This just dawned on me the other day while watching The Last Crusade: When Indy and his dad escape the zeppelin in the Nazi fighter plane Indiana comments that he knows how to fly, but not land. Why then, a few years earlier is he so dumbfounded when confronted by the empty cockpit of Lao Che's plane? I guess I'm just wondering when Dr. Jones finds the time for flight lessons between ToD and LC.

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In 1937 right before going on his unknown adventure.

ResidentAlien said:

I always took "fly? Yes. Land? No!" as a cloy reference to Temple of Doom where he manages to fly the plane (until it runs out of fuel) but of course it crashes. So yes... he's "flown" before... but never landed.

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That's how I always took it too. Like Indy said, how hard can it be? Of course his second "landing" went slightly better than the first.

ResidentAlien said:

I always took "fly? Yes. Land? No!" as a cloy reference to Temple of Doom where he manages to fly the plane (until it runs out of fuel) but of course it crashes. So yes... he's "flown" before... but never landed.

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I never realized that....that does make more sense.

ResidentAlien said:

I always took "fly? Yes. Land? No!" as a cloy reference to Temple of Doom where he manages to fly the plane (until it runs out of fuel) but of course it crashes. So yes... he's "flown" before... but never landed.

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Yeah, that was my assessment as well. I've actually taken a few flying lessons before--partly because it looked like fun and partly because I wanted to say I topped Indy (as if that's possible) by being able to say "Fly, Yes. Land, Absolutely!"-- and I think Indy could have concievably taken flying lessons back in the States. But I mean, think about it-- he's Indiana Jones. In that three-year gap between Temple (1935) and Crusade (1938), do you really think he had time to take lessons? When he wasn't busy playing professor, running off to South America, romancing Marion, finding one (or several?) of mankind's greatest lost treasures... it's possible.

*Just for any aspiring pilots out there: Flying is AWESOME! I had to put my lessons on a brief hiatus due to saving for college/money issues, but I hope to resume soon... NEVER let anyone tell you that adventure doesn't exist anymore. I know it does, and that the Indiana Jones spirit is alive and well every time I climb into that cockpit.

metalinvader said:

In the two novels that Martin Caidin wrote,Indy takes some flying lessons.

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I refuse to accept Caidin's novels as true Indy stories. I read one about a "White Witch" or something and it was horrible. The main character bore no resemblance to the Indy we all know and love.

Getting back to the original question, I always assumed that Indy considered his brief experience flying in TOD to be sufficient for him to tell his Dad he knew how to fly.