Once a problem area is identified, it usually receives so much extra scrutiny that it's no longer a concern. I was flying the MD-88 back then and I had no concerns because I knew that every MD-88 had been thoroughly inspected.

How long is your typical trip. That is, when you leave home, how long will it be until you get back home? Once you are back home, how long do you get to stay before you have to go back to work again?

Thanks for the response. I recall feeling this breathing stuffyness part on big planes for the most part. I can't recall the airlines where I had the worst, "god...this sucks...can we get some air already?" type of situations though.

I used to fly Delta a lot since I was living in the Cincinnati area for some time (Delta is big there for those who don't know). I live in Pittsburgh now so will not be flying Delta as much but if/when I do and this stuff happens again I'll go into "customers should have priority" mode with the FA or something if it's particularly bad.

I'm not sure I understand what this particular sentence construction is, but in every airplane that has an APU (which includes most jets, but most props are not included), the APU can provide the aircraft with electric power and with bleed air to run the air conditioning packs. Both of these must be selected by the pilot separately.

It's not that strange. Think about what it needs to do. It goes down a conveyor with hundreds or thousands of other pieces. Someone needs to put it into a cart, then drive it to a plane, and put it in. Then people arrive and sometimes have as little as 30 minutes to change planes. They need to unload all the luggage, which takes a while, sort it all out, figure out where it needs to go, possibly drive it to the other side of the airport, then load it onto another plane. It's pretty obvious that it doesn't always make it. I've had my bags not show up twice, and both times I had a tight layover. One time it was an international flight where I had to clear customs, then turn in my luggage again, and have it loaded on. That process was time consuming. Of course, in those instances it just showed up on a later flight and they knew where it was the entire time. It's very rare that it actually turns up lost, and I'd imagine quite a large portion of the time its lost, it's just plain stolen either by employees or at the baggage claim.

What dictates angles of descent? I recall that flying into Copenhagen feels like the descent is incredibly steep relative to other airports. However, I can't think of a reason for them to come down at such a sharp angle. Maybe it's just childhood memories messing with me but it felt like we were plummeting. Thanks for the great thread!

Yes, I mean 100% free cabotage/open skies. Right now I think it's legal between most countries to do, say, LA->HK->BKK which is partial cabotage IIRC. What I would like to see is what you describe, i.e. Lufthansa having a NYC->LAX route for example. FWIW I don't think this would further push prices down unless ryanair or the other cheap ones get involved (sure would, but they would compete against Southwest and Jetblue, not delta and the like I think), simply because these big carriers (Luft, BA, AF, etc.) tend to be high-quality and aren't cheap at all where they do currently operate. I simply think it'd push for a higher quality/price ratio. Regardless I think that this isn't a clear-cut position and I can definitely see the drawbacks.

You answered it. I meant that maybe some planes' APU aren't connected to the A/C which apparently is never the case, thx.

I could write a book to answer this and, in fact, several have been written. To go into a lot of detail would almost surely result in tl;dr.

It's all about learning the relation between power and use of flight controls and knowing how they interact. Try telling someone how to drive a car without actually demonstrating it in a car and you can start to realize what a futile effort it is for me to try to tell you how to fly a plane.

We can discuss aerodynamic principles and flying techniques, but I can't tell you how much to pull back on the yoke for takeoff any more than you could tell a new driver how far to turn the steering wheel to negotiate a turn.

These I can answer.

Bank is movement around the longitudinal axis of the plane (an imaginary line extending from the nose to the tail of the plane). The ailerons (small control surfaces on the aft outboard part of each wing) are used to cause a bank. Move the control wheel (or stick in some aircraft) to the right and the right aileron moves upward into the slipstream causing the right wing to move downward, and the left aileron moves down causing that wing to move upward.

Pitch is movement around the lateral axis (line from wingtip to wingtip). Pull the wheel back and the elevator (control surface on the back of the horizontal stabilizer) will move up in the slipstream, forcing the tail down and the nose up. This will cause a climb. Additional power will be required if a constant airspeed is desired during the climb.

Yaw is movement around the vertical axis (a vertical line through the airplane's Center of Gravity). Push the right rudder pedal and the rudder (control surface on the back of the vertical stabilizer) moves to the right into the slipstream, forcing the tail to the left and the nose of the airplane pivots around the C.G. to the right.

Whatever is that annoying thing that my niece says when she can't formulate a coherent reply.

Flaps are not a required flight control surface, but sure are nice to have. They are located on the inboard aft portion of the wings and are selected to various positions depending on the airplane. On the 767 we can select 1, 5, 15, 25 or 30 degrees of flaps. They reduce the stall speed of the plane and also give a lower pitch attitude for a given airspeed. Thus we can fly our approach at a slower airspeed, which translates into less runway used to get stopped and less wear on the brakes. Of course there is a trade off since flaps add drag, so more power is required for a given airspeed. If we have a flap failure and have to land with flaps up, we might have an approach speed of 170 kts or so (about 195 mph) vs the normal range of 130 to 140 kts.

218 (unless I misunderstand the question)

An airplane accelerates when thrust > drag.
It maintains a steady speed when thrust = drag.
It climbs when lift>gravity.
It cruises level when lift=gravity.

The wing produces lift by its shape and its affect on the airflow over it. I'll leave it as an exercise to the student to Wikipedia "Bernoulli Effect".

Cool huh? They all have a meaning, but the importance varies all the way from "Who cares?" to "Holy S***, we'll need that to live!"

Different airplanes will have different flying characteristics and vastly different spin characteristics. Some planes can be spun easily and the spin is docile and easy to recover from (just let go of things!). Others are not certified to spin and have warning placards to that effect; i.e. you can enter the spin, but you may not be able to recover.

A flat spin is just a way to describe a spin where the plane's pitch attitude is near level vs nose down as in a traditional spin. My old Grumman Yankee was placarded against spins. This was because the fuel tank was a simple tube extending along the lateral axis (see definition above). In a spin the fuel would tend to "dumbbell" out to the wingtips producing a flat spin and after about 3 turns it would be unrecoverable.

Don't fly to Martha's Vinyard on a moonless night unless you are instrument rated.

If you were flying a perfectly clean, smooth plane, would you be able to tell the difference in drag compared to flying a plane with a bunch of little dings and dents?

John Jr reference

Why aren't planes dimpled like golf balls?

An addendum to my earlier loop question:

Would it be possible to do a loop the other way ie start going down towards Earth keep going around end up upside down and keep going around up and complete the 360 rotation? Again not an Immelman turn but a full loop.

Also I guess you could figure it out with science but can you guess what the radius of the circle of a Boeing doing a full loop would be, travelling at whatever the standard cruising speed is.

Is the following true?
There are BOLD pilots and there are OLD pilots, but no OLD BOLD pilots.

Flying is hours of boredom separated by seconds of pure terror.

There are three things a pilot can't use;
Fuel on the ground.
Altitude above you.
Runway behind you.

Did I mention, I can fly the crap out of a C-150? I've got a few stores, but mine pale in comparision.

W0X0F, this goes down as the best non-poker thread in 2+2 history! ! ! Maybe I'm a bit bias. Please keep us updated with interesting stories from future flights.

I've been to Dublin perhaps a half dozen times and I can't remember anything remarkable about the airport one way or the other. It's smaller than many other airports but I kind of like that.

The Concord was impressive. I remember when 2 a day came in to Dulles airport (both Air France and British Airways). On takeoff they lit the afterburners (common on military planes, but a first for civilian planes I think) that shook the ground...you always knew when the Concord was on the takeoff roll.

On landing, the nose pivoted down, providing better forward visibility for the pilots since the landing attitude was so nose high. It made the plane look like a bird of prey.

Unfortunately it was never a commercial success and only continued to operate for as long as it did because it was government subsidized

So a flat spin the plane is spinning like a frisbee, or spiraling like a football?

What is 'trim'?

Here are some out-takes from the Mythbusters epidose. Doesn't play for me, but could be b/c I'm in Canada.
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/myth...h-landing.html

It's from episode 94. Here is a summary of the segment.

Fly on United and you'll see plenty of them. United went on a EEO hiring bender in the mid to late 90s and hired just about every woman we had at ACA at the time. Women First Officers with 1,000 hours were getting hired at United while male Captains with 10,000 hours couldn't get an interview.

From http://www.iswap.org/html/faqs.html :

The percentage of women airline pilots is about 5% worldwide.

United Airlines has the most women pilots with 68 Captains, 401 First Officers and 44 Second Officers for a total of 513. The total seniority list is about 8800 pilots.

I agree, but United has hired some less-than-qualified women. And I say this acknowledging that there are many excellent women pilots (and some are at United). I have flown with several women at Delta and they were all fine.

But I also knew one particular case first hand. When I was at ACA one woman I know got an interview and was turned down by United. That alone was a remarkable event. Six months later she interviewed again (United's policy is you could re-apply 6 months after a rejection.) She got rejected again. Six months later, another interview. Another rejection (that's 3 so far, and during the same time many qualified men could not get even one interview). Six months later, she had interview number 4 and this time she was apparently United material because she got hired.

The same thing went on with minority hiring at United. Again, I'm not saying at all that minorities aren't qualified to be pilots. That's ridiculous. But if you could check one of the minority blocks on the application, you were guaranteed an interview and as long as you didn't throw up on yourself during the interview, you were probably getting hired.

All this was a result of a discrimination suit brought against United in the early 90s. A judge in San Francisco was appalled to see that United's pilot group did not reflect the same percentages of minorities and women as seen in the population at large and he ordered them to rectify the situation.

United is now having to deal with the consequences and I've heard that they have some women over there who have been barred from ever moving up to Captain, i.e. they are life time First Officers. This I can't attest to firsthand, but I've heard it so many times from so many sources that I think it's true.

If we were being chased by armed bandits, and we happened across a helicopter with the keys in it, could you fly us the hell out of there?

Or would you basically have no clue how to fly a helicopter? I hear they're massively complex.

For a pilot of some experience level (not talking about a 100 hour guy), it could probably be done, at least without loss of life. I'm assuming use of the autopilot and a good experienced person on the radio to talk you through it.

I would love to be able to try this in one of our simulators in Atlanta.

About 6 years ago I was flying on a CRJ-60 from Tampa or something and the following happened.

We were taking off, reached full speed, the front landing gear began to lift off, and then the next thing I know the reverse thrusters are on, full breaks being applied, and the pilot just comes on and says some master system alert went off.

Any idea what this might have been? I've flown probably 100+ times and have never even heard someone else mention they've heard of an aborted takeoff.

Maybe a dumb question but..

When booking a flight in the winter months, if I can get a layover in dallas, rather then chicago should I do that. I always thought just incase there is bad weather it would be backed up in chicago, but now I think about it, could it screw up all airports?

I actually always wanted to be a pilot since I was a little kid. I have read into it, and heard it was super tough, but never really even talked to a real pilot before.

What are some of the first steps to becomming a pilot, and how hard is it to become a commercial airline pilot?

Edit: I saw you said military, I def dont want to go through that. any other sugg?

Do all new planes come w/ joysticks (I'm sure that's not the technical term) or do they still make models with those big wheels? Which do you prefer?

Couldn't agree more with your characterization of the Tailhook mess. Many fine officers had their careers ruined simply because they were present at this convention.

Is it in the DNA? Did I have some natural proclivity for flying? Do I ask a lot of questions as if I'm interviewing myself?

I dunno. I know I was interested from an early age, but not a burning interest that some others have had. In fact when I realized that I didn't have the eyesight for military flying, I very nearly abandoned the dream.

Two things happened which gave me the opportunity and the push I needed:

(1) I graduated a semester early from college. I was on a full parental scholarship and was trying to save the old man 12.5%

(2) a neighbor of ours who I had known since I was 8 years old had just gotten his CFI under the GI bill (this guy had flown 100 missions in P-51s in Korea and then flew the U-2 over Russia in the late 50s) and offered to teach me for free

So I started my training and after one lesson, Mr. C (the CFI) took a job with NASA at Moffett Field in California to head their High Altitude Missions Branch. Well, now I really had the bug, so I continued on my own.

Had it not been for that, I would probably still be looking skyward and wondering what it would be like to slip the surly bonds and dance on laughter silvered wings. (Anyone recognize where that's from?)

Any comments on these? How much easier/harder is it to land on water? If the water is choppy, is it still possible to land safely? (Due to windy conditions, not middle of the ocean)