Speaking of luggage: Why on earth does it get lost or mis-routed so frequently? I know this isn't your department but figured you may have thoughts on that.


(apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere...skimmed part of the thread)

I was going to ask the OP about his reaction to that tragedy as that was an MD-83. The jackshaft tailplane system is still in use on that model of metal I believe.

That's my "strategy as well".

No offense, but why do you think you're right that there is nothing they can do (maybe flight attendants don't even know?) when the guy in the cockpit is telling us yes, they can, tell them to fire up the APU and it'll be good?

I've been in planes that have been on the ground for 2 hours before departing because of bad weather or no departure spot available, etc, and have had A/C. The opposite has happened as well.

Is it possible not all planes have APU->A/C electricity?

I read a bit of the discussion about Cessna's crashing, and I'm quasi-grunching here so if you addressed it I apologize:

OP already mentioned that Cessna's are so prevalent in accidents due mostly to the ridiculously high number of that type of aircraft being flown, but there is another, very key element. On the whole, at least compared to true aviation professionals, light civilian aircraft are piloted by bad pilots. There's a huge differential in training, skill, and safety parameters. Its a much more "cowboy of the sky" atmosphere.

How do you fly a plane?

I mean I suppose that's a big question, but could you take us through the basics of what you learned in pilot school? What is a bank, pitch, or yaw, or whatever? How do 'flaps' work? How many control thingamajigs are there on a plane? What keeps the plane in the air? What's the deal with all those gauges? I mean are they really all important or are some of them like a secret LOL?

Also, what is the deal with a flat spin? Why is it supposedly easy for a plane to get into one, and why is it so hard for a pilot to stop? Or is that even true? What are the other basic danger that inexperienced pilots have to watch out for?

Brilliant read, and thanks a million for taking the time and effort.

Dublin airport, how does it rank v other 'major' airports?

What are your opinions of concord? I won't ask into anymore detail but for someone of your obv experience and ability to articulate your thoughts,i'd love to hear your opinions.
Have we taken a step back, and how did we not improve on concord given the relatively long period of time that it was perhaps considered the ultimate?

Thanks again, this is truly an execptionally enlightening and entertaining read.

I don't want to sound like an ass, but you might want to pick up a manual or read wiki or something. That's a loaded bunch of questions.

Percentage (if any) women pilots? I don't recall ever having a woman as a pilot or seeing any in an airport. And I have flown quite a bit.

I hope there isn't some type of affirmative action program for pilots. I want the best pilot regardless of race or gender. Too many lives at stake.

great thread sir - thank you for your thread here and also for all that you do in flying folks around and looking out for us.

I've never thought about this before, but yeah, what gives?

I guess I misunderstood the part of the thread title that said 'flying in general'

Would this include me......I can fly the absolute dog crap out of a Cessna 150. 121.5 Mayday Maday I need a really long runway, I'm coming in for a landing. Any chance?

Thanks for your replies WOXOF, always wondered how that chaos at Logan didn't end in...you know...chaos.

Lol'd about the Concorde snippet, would it be wrong to hope that it was a French crew who was forced to wait

My last question, and hopefully you haven't grown tired of answering.

In my life, I've known only three people who have gone on to careers in aviation.

-A childhood friend who, as soon as his mother would let him ride public transportation alone, would go to the airport on Friday and Saturday nights. He figured a way to get on the roof of a terminal and would sit there til it was time to catch the last train home, and watch planes land. He joined the Navy and became an ATC. Last I heard, he's currently an ATC in Orlando.

-My brother played college football at a military university. His football roommate went on to become a USMC aviator, eventually being wrongly accused, and improperly interrogated, in the political witch hunt best known as Tailhook. This aviator could have went to any school out of HS but chose that school because it gave him the best statistical opportunity to fly jets.

-A cousin, who I've long since lost contact with, and who'd rather ride a motorcycle 100 mph than crack a book, left for FLA literally days after being let out of (because he barely graduated) HS. His passion was to fly and he finagled his way, after a couple of years, into a flight school down there. Now, lots of years and flight hours later, he's a pilot for one of the package delivery companies (even after breaking tons of bones due to motorcycle accidents).

In my very small sample size, the prevailing constant is that they all knew, at a very, very young age, that flying, or being associated with flying, was their destiny in life.

Wasn't (Hudson River) Sully a crop duster as a teen? As opposed to the Continental pilot in Buffalo who crashed after taking up flying at 38?

Very long winded way of asking, knowing that your Dad was a Navy aviator and that you knew early on flying was your thing, are aviators born and not bred?

Not sure if you've seen this already, but a United Airlines pilot was arrested yesterday for drinking before a flight from Heathrow.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/...pilot_arrested

I hope your answer is no, but I have to ask... Have you ever witnessed or heard of pilots drinking before flights? Does it happen often?

Great thread, etc. etc.


Maybe I'm too tired from playing Modern Warfare 2 for the last 19 hours, but do you mean a male pilot was getting a BJ during a flight, got fired, and then

A) Got his job back
and
B) GOT A MILLION DOLLARS?


I call shenanigans!

By "can't do anything" I mean that the attendants act like they are helpless on this matter and seem to be under a policy where they have to tell the passengers to just suck it up. You get the impression from their tone that they receive complaints about this on perhaps every flight and are just giving the same denial over and over.

Anyway, I don't mean to imply that somebody couldn't crank up the air if they wanted to. Obviously they could and they are saving gas/power or whatever at the customers' expense/misery. I just mean that the attendants will not relay your complaint to the cockpit because they've already been told they aren't supposed to and generally they simply won't do anything.

This is roughly the same as you complaining about a flight you were on and the airline telling you, "sorry, there's nothing we can do." Well, literally speaking there's a lot they COULD do. They could do sexual favors for you or give you a freaking million dollars conceivably or anything they wanted. When they say "nothing we can do" they just mean there is nothing they are GOING to do and they are going to continue to claim that it is out of their power to do so.

Ya ok that's reasonable. I was hoping it was a seldom-happening problem since I've only encountered it once.

I might fight dirty the next time it's particularly egregious and just tell the attendant that the lack of air is making physically sick and they HAVE to go to the cockpit now and tell the pilot that the passengers are really making a fuss about the heat.

It sucks to have to go to whiny extremes to get it done and I would feel like the biggest wuss ever. But I feel like they started this little battle. That big "thank god" sigh that comes from the 100 passengers when they finally do turn the air on when you get moving should be an obvious indication that their current methods are inappropriate.

jim - I'm probably more sensitive to this type of thing than most people. But I've been on multiple flights where it was uncomfortable enough beforehand that pretty much the entire plane did the big "thank god" sigh when they could finally breathe decently again.

Maybe they mistook you for Captain of Captain and Tenille who were appearing jus two nights later in the same showroom as Cher was playing in?

This is best airline story ever.

I really wouldn't mind being "bored" with the details of how they got caught.

Pleeeeeeeeeease!!!!!!

I mean, did the door swing open somehow or did a different attendant open the door and everyone saw them or did they accidentally knock on the PA while they were doing it? The mind races. I need to know!

cool thread.

btw they also did a mythbusters on the cell phone thing, and basically found that unless something different is going on in the air or whatever that there's pretty much no effect at all even if you're using some heavy duty cell phone (which iirc represented many cell phones at once but I'm not sure)

but like op mentioned, it's still an excellent rule, because flying with mother ****ers on their cell phones would be the worst thing ever

Do cell phones even get reception in the air?

Roy, sometimes they do. Mine has accidentally switched on in flight (those who have the Env2 know how easy this is to do just by sitting on it the right way) and I had a few bars at cruising altitude somewhere over middle america.