Pilot humor:

He left home about 8:30 a.m. t! o do some work in his hanger at the airport with his friends. On the way out the door he answered his wife's "what time will you be home?" question with "probably about 1:30, I'll have lunch at the airport."
1:30 came & went, 3:00 passed, 6:15, still not home, finally at about 7:00 pm he rolls in the driveway, and presents his wife with a pizza, and begins the apologetic story:
I finished cleaning the plane about 11:30, had lunch, and I started home, when alongside the road I saw this attractive girl with a flat tire on her car. I stopped to help, got the tire changed, and looked around for a place to wash my hands. She offered money, but I refused, so she suggested that I at least allow her to buy me a beer. She said there's a tavern just up the road, and they have a restroom, you can clean up a bit. I agreed to stop, we had a beer, then another beer, then a couple more, and I realized that this girl was not only pretty, she was very friendly, and a good companion to spend time with. Before I knew it, we were in the motel next door having sex. And that is why I am so late getting home.
His wife looked him right in the eye and said "don't lie to me;

YOU WENT FLYING, DIDN'T YOU?"

Two things from a recent flight:

1) How do they pick the routing? Flying from Houston to Buenos Aires, we flew across to the Yucatan, down Central America, cut across the Pacific something like San Jose, Costa Rica to Quito, then followed the Andes to almost Santiago before turning east. That seems a lot out of the way as compared to going straight across the Caribbean/Brazil sort of direction.

2) What sort of medical facilities are on board? I caught some nasty bug, but I was thinking 'what if it were worse'? Do they have a place where a passenger can lay down if they're really sick, or is it 'suffer in your seat until we can touch down', in the case of an emergency?

Everything you mentioned except for Santiago is on a straight line between Houston and Buenos Aires.

Lol. Direct route crosses neither the Caribbean nor Brazil.

http://aerosavvy.com/great-circle-routes/

That appears to be a circle route.

Oops. Good call on the routing. Sorry about that. The way it was shown on the little seat back app made it seem more disjointed and out-of-the-way than it actually was.

We were west of the Andes further south, but that doesn't seem so much out of the way with Minimalist's image. Thanks for all the corrections.

Professional pilots have done much worse and kept their tickets. Not saying its right, just saying.

Planes have to aim east past the destination because the earth rotates while they're in the air.

that's gold, Jerry!

Thanks for the kind words and I hope you try that flight. Which airport is your local airport?

The cockpit is a no-nonsense place of business, so adequate training alone should do the trick. I'm trying to imagine what kind of "lock out" would pass a simple benefit/cost analysis. As for OSHA, to my knowledge our "front office" doesn't come under their purview.

I see you've already gotten some good advice on this, including some input from a guy who has actually done the job.

I think I related early in this thread that I once took the test for ATC. I did very well on it and went for an interview at Dulles Tower, but Reagan fired the controllers before I got hired. I could have re-applied but I got distracted by some other shiny object in the meantime so I never did.

I've met and talked to several controllers over the years and they've all loved their job. As for the stress of the job, I think this might not be as great as many people think. As someone else said here, being a controller has similarities to being a pilot. Most of the time, things go smoothly and it's another job. Once in a great while, there might be a situation which causes the old sphincter to pucker a tad and some people might be better suited to this than others.

One possible negative for some people is that it is shift work. En Route ATC centers and many towers are 24 hour operations, so it's not your basic Monday through Friday 9-5 job. Being a pilot isn't either and it's one of the aspects of the job that I actually like a lot.

Safety of the mechanics?

I'm sure the FAA is looking at his recent incidents. I know he had a forced landing on a golf course, but there are lots of reasons such an incident could occur which don't reflect upon his abilities or judgment. In fact, the findings could actually show that he exhibited superior airmanship. OTOH, it might be determined that the whole thing happened because of some oversight or negligence on his part. I simply don't know, so it would be presumptuous of me to offer an opinion.

As for his most recent faux pas, landing on an active taxiway and passing over another plane to touch down, he will probably face a little more heat. It wouldn't surprise me it he had a temporary suspension of his license, several months or a year. If the investigation raises serious questions as to his mental competency or judgment (influenced, perhaps, by the findings in the forced landing he made previously), he could face revocation of his license.

Airlines are motivated by moving that plane from point A to point B in this cheapest manner possible. All other things being equal, this means flying the great circle route. But other considerations often come into play: avoiding unfavorable weather or winds aloft, avoiding restricted airspace (e.g. military operations areas; airspace of hostile nations)

We have an emergency medical kit, which includes a defibrillator and certain drugs to be administered by a qualified medical practitioner (who might be on board as a passenger). There is no designated space for a passenger in distress, but the planes used on international have crew rest facilities which could be used if the Captain deems it necessary.

I live in Northern California so the closest commercial airport is SMF. There is a GA field, Sacramento Executive which had an hour long introduction for $99. I almost purchased this for my wife for her birthday a few years ago as she was interested in getting her license. I don't recall what replaced it.

I believe I will take that flight when the weather gets a little better. We live not too far from the Oroville Dam and it has been raining here for ages. Think if I wait a month or two the weather should be a little more forgiving.


Once again, let me Thank You for all your time and effort keeping this thread alive all this time. You are the greatest ambassador the flying public has.

Getting flying again at all? Assuming no FAA news, but doing any GA flying in the meantime?

I am way beyond frustrated with the situation. My paperwork (medical history and diagnostics) have been at the FAA in Oklahoma City since October 12. I've called about six times and finally gave up because I always get the same story: we have your paperwork and it's awaiting review. They won't give me any estimate of the timeline for this process, but everyone I've talked to says 6-8 weeks is normal. At this point it's been over four months!

Until this is done, I can't get a medical certificate and that means I can't fly anything, even single-engine GA planes.

The good news: my golf handicap has improved from an 18 to a 12.

That is insane. It's too bad that your airline doesn't have some kind of ability to help that process along. Maybe the Donald will cut the red tape and relax these draconian regulations. SAD!

Agreed. Nice work tho.

But in your case it didn't? Actual lock with a key from the maintenance guy.

I've recently accepted that you can't model probability with humans and risk. If a Human is involved then at some point they will screw up. So when ever possible put in a control for those critical steps to prevent it. As in most industries maybe 1 in 10,000 steps is actually critical.

I realize that in airlines, you can't do that for all critical steps, but this seams like one you could. From what I recall of the situation.

I attended a talk from a former airline pilot about Human Performance and the airline industry. I found it interesting his take on airline checklists. I had always assumed that the pre-flight checklists were when the actions were carried out. But my take away was that the pre-flight is more of a confirmation and to ensure that the junior pilot feels safe in speaking up. He said that in health care the checklists fail when they don't ensure that all involved in the procedure have a voice so that they speak up later is they see something abnormal.

I hope that it will come in soon! do you want a group of FT to keep calling the FAA office?

two questions: Now with the final report about the DL 1086 flight (MD-88) @ LGA, any additional surprises?
http://www.avherald.com/h?article=482b659f/0004&opt=0
The one thing I still don't understand is how other plans in the 20-30 minute interval prior to the incident (and similar brake speed) did not really slide. I understand there was some delay in the input between the two engines on the reverse trust, but was it enough to cause the plane to de-tour to the left?

On another note- any thoughts about the decision to stop MD-88 flights into LGA as of March 2nd? (see the press release link here:

http://news.delta.com/delta-fly-newe...uardia-airport
).

Why would the MD-90 still fit the noise criteria while the MD-88 would not? (and besides, is it possible that the FAA report on DL1086 was more of the leading of the decisoin than noise levels? I just don't see how the 717, A320 or MD-90 have notably more quiet engines)

Captain WOXOF: you might consider calling the FAA hotline in hopes that it will light a fire under someone's ass. They used to have 3 separate ones: Administrator's hotline, Safety hotline, and Consumer hotline when I worked there about a hundred years ago. Since then, they've been merged into one. A Google search will produce the phone number. It can't hurt to try.

I've got to admit it, you've got a point. Not sure OSHA should be involved, however.

Most checklists are just what the name implies: a check that certain actions or procedures were accomplished. When we get into QRH checklists (for abnormal and emergency situations), the philosophy changes to more of a "do" list rather than a checklist.

I think you're referring to the preflight briefing that the Captain gives to the first officer at the beginning of a rotation (rotation is our term for the entire trip, which could span a number of days). This is not the same as the preflight of the airplane and the cockpit, the completion of which is confirmed using the preflight checklist.

The Captain's briefing sets the tone for the trip, including what is expected in emergency situations from each crew member. One important aspect of this briefing is just what you've alluded to, i.e. encouraging the FO to speak up if he sees something he doesn't like and to also make sure he never feels rushed and is empowered to slow down the operation if he feels the need for more time.