What would be the horizon at say 35000'? I recall flying back to the UK from Faro in Portugal and I could see the Atlantic coast out of the windows on the port side of the plane and a very recognizable series of bends in a big river (the Douro I think) which were over the border in Spain, just down to our right. Therefore, at whatever height were were at, you could see right across the whole country of Portugal.

According to this "horizon calculator", the horizon would be about 229 miles away. I don't know how wide Portugal is, but I know I've occasionally seen all the way across the state of Florida (from the Atlantic to the Gulf). On a clear night, flying from Florida to New York, I've looked out to see the lights of D.C., Baltimore, Philly and New York all strung out on about a 060 heading.

Wow, thanks for the speedy answer. I just looked at Google Earth and Portugal would seem to be just a touch smaller than Florida. Both would be around 130-140 miles wide, depending on where you measure so according to the horizon calculator, it should be pretty easy to see clear across both, given good visibility.

Is it true that pilots have to get a spinal tap to check to see if they ever used lsd?

Uh, no.

The answer to this depends on whether you are talking about coach, business or first class and whether you value better "hard product" (seat functions, pitch between seats and Audio/Video) or if you value better "soft product" (service, food, friendliness).

As a rule, you will find that most of us on flyertalk prefer European carriers to American ones. There are exceptions, but in general the European airlines have vastly better soft product. In some cases the hard product is poor where a particular airline hasn't kept up with the latest innovations (this is especially a case in business and first where lie flat seats are now pretty standard and some airlines still have non-flat seats which are much harder to sleep on). I've tried most of the carriers and my favorite is Swiss Air on balance.

If the larger jets are no more difficult to fly than the smaller ones why does pilots' pay increase with the size of the plane?

A 747 makes a bigger hole in the ground if you crash it than does a Cessna Citation.
Seriously, more pax/freight, more expensive hardware. All equals greater responsibility.

I couldn't agree with you more...the guys flying the smaller planes should get paid the same as the guys flying the big ones. It's time they all got a healthy raise.

Well, perhaps not a healthy one, but the next raise should come to you next January.

Congratulations!

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/stor...FREE&cm_ite=NA

Thanks...I guess. From the article you cite:

Yippee...we'll finally make as much as we made 5 years ago...but still substantially less than we made 9 years ago. Think about how excited that would make you.

This is an awesome thread, and shame on everyone for not pointing this out yet.

I actually learned about the thread from the one started over on FT. I have since made it through both of them, but because I find the folks over there to be generally disagreeable, I created an account over here (Disclaimer: any subsequent poker losses by me will be attributed to joining in an effort to ask you questions, and will need to be compensated by your employer, preferably with frequent flier miles in sufficient amount for me to fly to Vegas and lose more money).

I did want to ask a few questions, so I'll dispense with the probably-not-funny jokes.

1) Because I know you have been responding to posts on FT, and you make very clear that you are pretty darn knowledgeable about the plane and flying it, but not an expert on all the policies governing seats, upgrades, security screening, and unavailability of Biscoff Cookies, does it surprise you how many frequent fliers take all those things so seriously? And does their fervor make you more or less appreciative of the folks who sit in First without paying for the First Class ticket?

2) The 787 is supposed to replace the 767, but the 767 still in production, while the 757 isn't. Given the nice things you have said about the 757, and the fact that it is the only aircraft used by all the legacy carriers, can you provide a rationale while the 757 went out of production, but the 767 is still being made?

3) I have a connection through JFK in a few weeks. You mentioned the new runway looks great from the approach, but I was curious as to how the ground traffic is these days?

4) You have mentioned your belief that it's important to get the word to passengers when there are delays or other situations. Further, many posters here have asked about this. You also mentioned that it's not emphasized much during training. Given your company's emphasis on communication (and I am assuming other companies although I am a loyal DL customer) by other folks like GAs and FAs, are you surprised that there aren't more specific policies in place regarding this?

5) Finally, I'm not sure if you are aware, but those of us who are part of the lowest tier of Delta's elite status (seems like an oxymoron, I know) are commonly referred to as "FO". This stands for "flies often" and is also noted on the manifest using FO. So does the company have a different abbreviation for you as the "First Officer"? I'm curious because if not, I'm gonna pull out my blue blazer from my Conformation, and the pilots hat my grandma bought me for Christmas when I was 12, and just announce myself at the gate as the FO, and see how long it takes the Sky Marshall to grab me!!

Seriously though, an amazing thread. You do a service to the flying public (and the poker playing public apparently) with your honest responses. And I especially appreciate that you make clear when you are stating fact, when it's an opinion, when it's a guess, and when you just can't say.

Thanks a lot. Now off to play a sit-and-go (your fault)!

You're obviously absolutely right. My question is pretty close to asking "what do I do with JJ UTG?" without giving any other info, so I'm slightly embarrassed

Thanks for answering, though. I'll go have a look at Flyertalk instead of cluttering this awesome thread.

Apologies for taking so long to respond to this one...I was trying to find time to answer all the questions in your post at once. But since I have just a little time right now, I'll knock out the first question and get to the rest later...

I don't catch the brunt of passenger demands the way FAs do, but sometimes I hear about the more egregious ones. I don't blame someone in First Class (or, as we call it, "Business Elite") for expecting some perks and service. I've had a few instances where we've really let them down and we try hard to make it right.

Recently, out of Copenhagen, we were flying one of the former NW 757s back to JFK. This plane had detachable entertainment systems in Business...little monitors that the FAs hand out after takeoff and which attach to pedestals that come out of the armrest (I'm sure it was state-of-the-art back in the 80s). Well, the caterers in Copenhagen removed the bin containing the monitors and replaced it with a bin of sodas. When the FAs went to hand them out, surprise! No entertainment for anyone up front for the crossing. We actually called Atlanta on our SATCOM (rarely used unless operationally needed) and discussed getting some kind of vouchers for the pax. I think they ended up giving them all $400 in travel credits.

On another occasion, the entire entertainment system (IFE in the biz: In Flight Entertainment) was out on a flight to Saõ Paulo. There were 3 businessmen riding up front, who had paid big $$$ for roundtrip, who were very annoyed about that. They were assured that this wouldn't happen again (not sure who assured them, FA or ground personnel at Saõ Paulo). They went to their meeting and returned that night. I was on the return flight, in the same plane they had come down in. The IFE was still not working and they were pretty angry...I don't blame them.

I was just told an interesting story about the cast of "Real Housewives of New Jersey" going on one of our flights to Venice with families and camera crew in tow. They were out of control, trying several times at the gate and throughout the flight to move up from Coach to Business class. The Captain had to finally get involved and he told them face to face (during the flight out over the Atlantic) that if they persisted in this behavior, he would divert to Lajes where they would all be kicked off the plane (and likely spend some time in police custody).

After the flight, in true "reality TV" style, they bitched loudly for the cameras, each trying to top each other on who had the worst flight. They were being filmed in the terminal, prior to clearing customs, and as the flight crew walked by they began shouting "YOU SUCK". It'll be interesting to see if any of that makes the show, but I'll never know unless Joe McHale shows a clip on his show (The Soup).

Non-revs sitting in Business class are usually very easy to please...just happy to have a more comfortable seat.

I know It´s a rerun, but have to join the quire…
This Is the greatest tread not related to poker on 2+2, and I have been at regular reader since 2006, now I have to register to post in this thread. Thanks for your time and dedication W0X0F… Now for the question

I found this YouTube link at my Danish newspaper.
(About a Delta Airlines emergency landing in JFK)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5PpY...layer_embedded

My first reaction was… will you please shut op miss… she is totally in panic and not making the situation any better, but of course I haven’t got a glue what its like to be in such a situation, and would properly be a little scared kid if I had such a situation.
(Been flying from Copenhagen to US 2 times a year in the last 12 years).
So how do you evaluate the situation, is she following a flight procedure and I supposed to act like this or is she in panic ?

She is doing exactly what she's trained to do. I went through my 6 month recurrent sim training at the beginning of this month and I passed by a classroom of flight attendants in training (not sure if it was initial or recurrent training). I heard individuals repeatedly shouting out commands just like this.

It sounds silly, but it must have some logical basis. Maybe the thinking is that if you say it only once or twice, the passengers will inevitably start coming up from the crash position to look around. The FAs are definitely trained to shout and be forceful during an emergency. Even the meekest among them is judged during training on her "command" voice.

[BTW, I have a Copenhagen trip on Oct 8-10.]

I'm not in the aircraft building business, but each model fills a specific market niche. It may be that the newer model 737s fill the same market as the older 757s and do it at a lower cost. Whatever the reason, you can bet it was strictly a business decision when all is said and done.

Ground traffic is just fine, except for an area of construction at the SW corner of the airport. This doesn't seem to have much affect on traffic flow however.

This subject gets pretty short shrift during training. They put out some sample scripts of what to say during certain generic situations (e.g. airborne hold, ground delays), but it's not emphasized. The assumption seems to be that anyone can make a PA but you don't have to fly much to know that this isn't true. Still, I'm not sure you can make a good public speaker out of every pilot so how much time should be spent on this skill?

I'm a big believer in keeping the passengers informed, even if it's just to say that we have no additional information but will pass along whatever we can. Just 2 days ago, flying in from Zurich, we had to go around on Runway 4R at JFK due to a controller who had a misplaced confidence in an airplane to make an "immediate" takeoff.

I was sitting in the jumpseat, being the relief pilot on this leg, and as I watched the plane slowly taxi onto the runway I knew that there was no way he was going to get off in time. Sure enough, the tower told us to go around when we were about a mile out. Since I wasn't flying, I immediately got on the PA and told the passengers that there was nothing to be concerned about, we were just going around because another plane was still on the runway and they don't like two airplanes on the same runway at the same time. Flight attendants thanked me for the timely PA after we landed.

Yep, they call the guy in the right seat FO (Eff-Oh), though some people (even old time pilots) use the term co-pilot.

Thanks for the response. I didn't mind the delay, was just worried I had killed the thread!

And I'm with you on the ASA flight attendant. The flight crew did their jobs well, but it was her job to make sure people had the best chance for survival if something else went wrong.

Interesting perspective on this written for AOL News
http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/artic...ndard/19650994

I agree entirely, it's a team effort. Although she was "only doing what she was trained", I hope her bosses take her into the office, sit her down and properly thank her for doing her job well.

I agree completely, and I'm sure she has been commended within the company. They should make it more public however, especially in light of some of the criticism that's out there.

It's one thing to be trained on what to do in an emergency, but you never know how an individual will actually react in the heat of the moment. In the few emergencies that I have first or second hand knowledge of, the FAs have all done exactly as they were trained.

I know of one instance from many years ago (not at my present airline) where a pilot kind of lost his cool. With smoke filling the cockpit he reportedly said something to the effect of "We're all going to die!" The FO, an ex-marine, took control and said, "Not today M** F**er!"

A few weeks ago I was walking around the perimeter of Manchester airport. While standing near the end of runway one (05L) I heard a loud thud just after a plane had passed overhead while landing and a few seconds after that a 50ft tall tree located in a wooded area about 20m away virtually bent in half before springing upright again.

Is it possible this could've been 'blue ice' falling from the plane?

4 of us saw/heard it and it was quite unnerving, since then it's bugged me as to what may have caused it. I walked into the wooded area to have a look but couldn't see any debris or tree damage. Most strange.

Pic below shows where it happened:

mention may have been made of this already, but i was reading Cpt. Sully's wiki and came across this;

well played, imo.

Agree. Goes for the rest of life too, especially in the work place. So much ill will, poorly conceived baseless assumptions and frustration could be avoided if people just took the time to stay in constant communication and relay the current status of things.

Extremely unlikely. Blue ice forms when there's a leak in the lav system, which is really not much more common than any other leak on an airplane (fuel, hydraulics). The few leaks I've seen are minor and show up as blue streaks down the side of the plane, emanating from the lav service door. You're just not going to see large blue ice chunks falling from a plane and for such a chunk to then hit a tree and cause it to bend in half? I don't see this happening at all.

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the plane was very low and actually caught the top of the tree somehow, perhaps in the landing gear. It's happened before with the only evidence being branches and leaves in the gear, found after landing. A pretty unlikely event, but it's possible.

BTW, I notice that this is Manchester, England. I was at first thinking of Manchester, NH in the states. But why do you refer to Runway 05L as "runway one"? Is that a Brit term for the main runway?

I agree...nice move by those guys.