History Main / FallingIntotheCockpit

* In ''Anime/ZettaiMutekiRaijinOh''. [[TheHero Jin]], [[TheLancer Asuka]], and [[TheHeart Kouji]] [[spoiler:(and later [[TheChick Maria]], but only through remote control)]] become mech pilots only because they happened to be there when the Mech's previous owner was dying. Then it's played literally as OnceAnEpisode, during the school's massive TransformationSequence, the said pilots are literally ''thrown'' into the cockpit before launch.

** This is more or less how Ziggy becomes Ranger Green in ''Series/PowerRangersRPM''.

** Speaking of ''Gundam 00'', this trope played straight with [[spoiler: [[TagAlongKid Saji Crossroad]]]] when [[spoiler: he was asked by Ian to pilot the 0-Raiser and deliver it to [[TheHero Setsuna]] so they can [[CombiningMecha combine]].]] He becomes its permanent pilot afterward.

* Creator/KurtBusiek's book ''ComicBook/{{Shockrockets}}'' begins with this trope.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'': Eri/Suletta replaces Uso as the youngest pilot to fall into the cockpit of a Gundam, doing so at the age of ''four''. Admittedly, her mother did most of the piloting as they evacuated their home colony, but the little girl turns out to have amazing compatibility with the system and destroys three mobile suits with the Gundam's AttackDrones while [[AchievementsInIgnorance marveling at all the pretty lights on the screen]], considerably freaking out her mom in the process.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'': Eri/Suletta replaces Uso as the youngest pilot to fall into the cockpit of a Gundam, doing so at the age of ''four''. Admittedly, this was because her mother, the test pilot, took her with her while evacuating their home colony, but the little girl turns out to have amazing compatibility with the system and destroys three mobile suits with the Gundam's AttackDrones while [[AchievementsInIgnorance marveling at all the pretty lights on the screen]], considerably freaking out her mom in the process.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'': Eri/Suletta replacs Uso as the youngest pilot to fall into the cockpit of a Gundam, doing so at the age of ''four''. Admittedly, her mother was with her and did the bulk of the piloting, but the little girl turns out to have amazing compatibility with the system and destroys three mobile suits with the Gundam's AttackDrones while [[AchievementsInIgnorance marveling at all the pretty lights on the screen]], considerably freaking out her mom in the process.

* Mechanically supported in the ''[=CAMELOT=] Trigger'' setting for ''[[{{TabletopGame/Fate}} Fate Core]]'', where a knight's [[HumongousMecha "armour"]] can be equipped with skills its pilot may not actually have and thus characters less laser-focused on being primarily career combatants can still contribute just fine in action at least as long as those systems don't get knocked out. On the other hand it's also entirely possible to have AceCustom designs that invest the same space into stunts meant to build on and enhance the pilot's existing skills instead and thus include few if any such integrated skill packages; ''those'' will consequently turn out [[SubvertedTrope that much less newbie-friendly in unqualified hands]].

[[folder:Film]]

* The climax of ''WesternAnimation/RugratsInParis'' has the titular babies take control of a [[HumongousMecha Humongous]] [[MotionCaptureMecha Motion Capture]] Reptar robot in order to [[RaceAgainstTheClock reach a church in time]] [[WeddingSmashers to save Chuckie's father from marrying a woman who doesn't even love him]]. Naturally HilarityEnsues.

* Grif in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' has never had any special vehicle training, as far as we know, yet somehow he always manages to end up as the designated driver. While he's great with a jeep, unlike a lot of examples he's not necessarily a ''good'' driver of some of the more exotic vehicles he drives... like the Pelican he crashes.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'': Eri/Suletta replacs Uso as the youngest pilot to fall into the cockpit of a Gundam, doing so at the age of ''four''.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'': Eri/Suletta replacs Uso as the youngers pilot to fall into the cockpit of a Gundam, doing so at the age of ''four''.

** Uso Evin in ''Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam'' gets the excuse that he's played with MS simulators as a kid, so he has a fairly good idea how a Mobile Suit works from the beginning.

** Also being a machinery operator back on Mars meant that he still had an active implant for controlling vehicles, luckily for him the mecha in the setting use the same interface that everything else appears to be standardized on. Otherwise the mecha would not have even started up for him.

* Parodied in "[[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/nge-father-knows-best.375333/#post-20744330 NGE: Father Knows Best]]". During an Angel attack, Gendo tells that Shinji is capable to pilot Unit-01. Assuming that Shinji must be trained, everyone ask him to pilot. When they realize that Shinji has no idea what he's doing and they sent out a rookie, everyone want to punch Gendo.

* 'May Day' has a light aircraft pilot attempting to fly a damaged supersonic airliner after an accidental missile strike. With most of the passengers in a [[FromBadToWorse near-zombie state]] due to oxygen deprivation.

* A dark variant occurs at the end of HG Wells' ''Literature/TheFirstMenInTheMoon''. The interplanetary sphere takes off soon after the narrator left it on a beach, and he immediately suspects a kid they passed by on the way and who is later reported missing. Given that the sphere is very tricky to control and that the narrator suspects the kid did not bother closing it before accidentally taking off, there is little chance to see the kid alive or the sphere ever again.

** Really, most of the Power Rangers in general fall into this category. It IS a show that depends on HumongousMecha to win the day, after all.

* ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'': Jack Ryan, a former Marine-turned-CIA analyst[[note]]"former Marine" to the extent that he was a Marine option at the Naval Academy, but was crippled by a drunk driver and completing school from the hospital before being medically discharged after graduating[[/note]], is briefly placed at the helm of the ''Red October'', an ''Akula''/''Typhoon''-class ballistic missile submarine, during some HotSubOnSubAction because there's less than a dozen people still aboard after Captain Ramius tricked his crew into abandoning ship.

* Deconstructed in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Valiant", which feels like a {{Deconstruction}} of the ''Franchise/StarWars''-style plot. An advanced warship on a training mission is caught behind enemy lines when its officers are killed. The surviving crew is a bunch of inexperienced but brave cadets, whose charismatic leader decides to try and destroy the Dominion's new super-battleship with an experimental technique. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome They fail, their ship is blown up]], and then the Dominion plays SinkTheLifeboats with the escape pods.

* Averted in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Valiant", which feels like a {{Deconstruction}} of the ''Franchise/StarWars''-style plot. An advanced warship on a training mission is caught behind enemy lines when its officers are killed. The surviving crew is a bunch of inexperienced but brave cadets, whose charismatic leader decides to try and destroy the Dominion's new super-battleship with an experimental technique. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome They fail, their ship is blown up]], and then the Dominion plays SinkTheLifeboats with the escape pods.

* Generally soundly averted in ''{{TabletopGame/BattleTech}}'' in that it takes literally years to train somebody to be a good [=MechWarrior=] -- even just to cadet level. The [[Franchise/BattleTechExpandedUniverse novel]] ''Hearts of Chaos'' sees super-scout and [=BattleMech=] hunter Cassie Suthorn invoke this trope twice (once via hijack, once borrowing a friend's ''Atlas''), and despite everything she knows about 'Mechs from the outside and having taken some lessons in between the two incidents she barely manages to get the machines to do anything useful at all.

* Mechanically supported in the ''[=CAMELOT=] Trigger'' setting for ''TabletopGame/FateCore'', where a knight's [[HumongousMecha "armour"]] can be equipped with skills its pilot may not actually have and thus characters less laser-focused on being primarily career combatants can still contribute just fine in action at least as long as those systems don't get knocked out. On the other hand it's also entirely possible to have AceCustom designs that invest the same space into stunts meant to build on and enhance the pilot's existing skills instead and thus include few if any such integrated skill packages; ''those'' will consequently turn out [[SubvertedTrope that much less newbie-friendly in unqualified hands]].

* Averted in ''Manga/BrokenBlade''. Rygart was a gifted student in the military academy who couldn't operate a golem because he is an Unsorcerer; he suddenly has to pilot an ancient Golem he can use.

* Creator/KurtBusiek's short-lived ''{{Shockrockets}}'' begins with this trope.
* In ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'' story ''Comicbook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton'' after emerging from her pod and swimming to the surface, Kara finds the Batboat, a vehicle she has never seen before, built by an alien, primitive culture. She crawls into the driver seat and manages to start it, although she crashes the boat into the docks.
* In ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}: [[Recap/TintinTheBlackIsland The Black Island]]'' Thompson and Thomson commandeer an airplane mechanic to fly a plane to chase after Tintin. The untrained pilot performs a lot of accidental aerobatics, and ends up winning a prize in an aviation contest.

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha'':
** In the [[SuperRobot Super]] route, your character gets into the Grungust Type 2 when the plane carrying it crashes into his or her school during a fight between Anime/MazingerZ and the MonsterOfTheWeek. On the [[RealRobot Real route]], your character is a young pilot in the military...who also falls into the cockpit of an experimental mech that happened to be at the base you're assigned to during an enemy attack; this time being the Huckebein Mk II and the Titans. As it turns out, the whole thing [[ThePlan was a set-up]] by Ingram.

** The [[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ Z series]] on the other hand has so far [[AvertedTrope Averted this]] with its {{Original|Character}}s. Setsuko Ohara, while TheRookie, is still a trained pilot, Rand Travis was piloting Gunleon for years, and Crowe is a retired veteran ([[spoiler: and was a member of an [[AcePilot Elite Black Ops unit]] at that]]).

* In ''Film/{{Airplane}}'', Ted Striker is a former Air Force fighter pilot with a [[ShellShockedVeteran severe neurosis]] about flying. When he musters his courage to get on a jet airliner to chase after his girlfriend, he turns out to be the only one aboard with any flying experience after the pilots all succumb to food poisoning. It doesn't help that the airline officer assigned to talk him down happens to have been his commander during The War. Being as ''Airplane'' is a parody of ''Film/ZeroHour'', this description applies almost word-for-word to that film as well.

* Averted in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Valiant", which feels like a {{Deconstruction}} of the ''Franchise/StarWars''-style plot; an advanced warship falls into the hands of a bunch of inexperienced but brave cadets, whose charismatic leader decides to try and destroy the Dominion's new super-battleship with an experimental weapon. They fail, their ship is blown up, and then the Dominion plays SinkTheLifeboats with the escape pods.

* In the 1980 ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'' film, Flash has to take over over the controls of a plane when the pilots are sucked through the windshield (or maybe [[DisintegratorRay disintegrated]]) by Emperor Ming. Not to mention that he also pilots a Jetbike and the huge "Ajax" cruiser later in the film without much trouble.

** Civilian pilots are recruited and given a few hours of lectures before taking to the sky in modern fighter jets without any actual flight simulations and manage to help win a battle against the aliens.
** Creator/WillSmith's character pilots the crashed UFO to dock with the mothership. Despite not knowing about aliens until two days prior, he defends himself as the best choice because he's "seen these things in action" and therefore knows of their maneuvering capabilities. Though, to be fair, that IS more experience than anybody else has.

** ''Anime/MazingerZ'': The first HumongousMecha anime used this trope showed it [[UnbuiltTrope in a more realistic way than later shows]]. Kouji Kabuto, the first HumongousMecha pilot, knew absolutely nothing about piloting a giant robot -or any manner of robot, really- and in the first few episodes [[RealityEnsues it shows]]. Mazinger went on a rampage the first time he activated it because he kept punching random buttons as he tried to learn controling the damned thing (in the original manga he almost destroyed one whole city; and in the anime he almost gets his little brother killed), and he got beaten in his first battles. Sayaka and her father did their best to teach him quickly, but until then he only survived due to Mazinger's impressive weaponry and sturdy body armor... and Kouji soon revealed he was a quick-thinker that could come up with new strategies on the fly.

* Deconstructed in a ''Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury'' episode where a teenager steals a SpaceFighter but quickly ends up in over his head and unable to return to base. Buck talks him through the procedure and compliments him on getting that far...[[RealityEnsues then turns the kid over to his parents for punishment]].

** Downplayed with Luke in ''Film/ANewHope'', who had only piloted civilian craft before ending up flying a starfighter at a decisive battle--though he was studying to enter the Space Academy, he had not yet attended it. The ExpandedUniverse elaborates that an X-Wing's controls aren't that different from the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/T-16_skyhopper Incom T-16 Skyhopper]], the "crop duster"-type aircraft Luke has been flying that is seen parked in his garage in the film. (In the original trilogy novels, he's been grounded from it by his uncle for reckless flying, which was why he took the landspeeder when looking for R2. He is also seen playing with a model of it the first time he's talking to the two droids.) When he talks of "tagging womp rats", he's referring to aerial target practice. He is also endorsed by a friend who ''is'' a regular Rebel pilot.

** In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', Rey is able to pilot the ''Millennium Falcon'' to escape from two TIE fighters in a high-speed chase across the desert ScavengerWorld of Jakku. Admittedly, she does have some initial difficulty with handling the ship, and tends to scrape the ground a lot during maneuvers. But she quickly gets the hang of it.

* The ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series has Captain Lawrence in a similar situation with a dragon, minus the initial battle. He's simply bonded to one of the rarest dragons in the world. A lot of the conflict is derived from various authority figures trying to get Temeraire to let someone else be his partner.