Pilot demonstrates how to start a 737, it’s tougher than you’d think

You might have seen your fair share of videos of airplanes taking off from airport runways, but have you ever wondered how a passenger airliner like the Boeing 737 starts?

Spoiler alert: it’s not as easy as starting a car.

Although everyone knows an airplane is one of the most complex ‘vehicles’ we have today, it takes a lot of effort to get it running, let alone flying.

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How a Boeing 737 engine starts

Fortunately for us viewers, an airline pilot posted a video of himself starting a Boeing 737 on his YouTube channel.

The footage showed him flicking a lot of switches, pushing buttons, turning dials, pulling levers — well, you get the point.

An aircraft cockpit is the control center and naturally comes with all sorts of controls.

With a large amount of integrated systems, everything needs to be manually checked before a plane is ready to take-off.

That’s where the plethora of buttons and switches come in — the pilot checks everything and configures the systems before starting the engine.

What’s more, several systems require different setups and adjustments depending on the flight route and weather conditions.

Many button pushes and switch flicks, in a specific order

To be fair, the Boeing 737 is a relatively old aircraft, and newer airplanes with newer tech require somewhat fewer switch flicks.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen a cockpit view of a 737, but those videos only featured take-offs and landings.

Regardless, it remains a complex procedure, and every pilot needs to learn the entire process — well, most of it — in the back of their head.

We won’t get into the specifics of what the pilot did, but one thing is for sure here.

It certainly isn’t as easy as pulling the handbrake, pushing the start button, and driving off.

Again, the entire startup procedure is only for starting up the aircraft’s engine.

Flying and landing have different processes, so being a pilot is not an easy job.