I would pay to be your test dumby for this experiement. Can I try a full rudder slip onto a postage stamp? Nothing beats looking down the runway out the side window on a steep approach.

How difficult is a landing on St. Maarten? Maybe it looks crazier than it is.

wish i hadnt found this thread just before i was going 2 bed, gonna be shattered tomorrow!

Seriously, awesome thread thanks OP

I've always been afraid of flying, and am very nervous and generally miserable during flight. Once I sat next to a nice gentleman in his mid-40's during a flight from Brazil to Orlando. I guess he could tell how nervous I was because he casually mentioned that he was a pilot and started talking about his experience and the reliability and safety of planes. As the flight went on, he proceeded to describe in detail every click, whirr, shake, rumble and so on that had always scared the **** out of me.

"Did you hear that click and then the whirring sound?"

::I nod terrified and imagning myself plummeting to my death::

"That was nothing to worry about, it was simply the landing gear being pulled up into the plane and the compartment that houses it shutting." Or whatever the particular thing may have been.

It made me feel infinitely better about the flight, and it was by far the most pleasant, least scary, aviation experience of my life. Since then, flying has been a little easier for me (although it's still not my favorite thing to do).

I've read through this entire thread, and it's had much the same effect. Reading through the safety procedures, and knowing that there are people as competent and professional as you in charge, has made me feel much less anxious about flying in the future.

This, I suppose, is all my long-winded way of saying what pretty much everyone else has already said before: "A+ thread. I (we) really appreciate you taking the time."

Who do you think is right, Boeing (who's strategy is that we'll soon all be flying from close-to-home airports on mid-range jets) or Airbus (betting on big central hubs and bigass planes to carry people between them)?

Obviously I'm over-simplifying but I think that's the gist of their strategic assumptions.

wow

good read btw

Hi WOXOF

Great thread

I used to be on the other side of the mike in Canada (the Northwest Territories). I have a few questions for you.

Cool handle (WOXOF). I don't think anybody has mentioned it. I doubt most of the posters know what it means. BTW, the first dog I ever had was NORDO, and the name suited him....(dumb animal)

1. Do you think the public is generally aware of how poor the wages are for pilots until they can get on with a large carrier. I know folks like yourself make a good living, but low time regional and small carriers seem to get paid next to nothing because the companies know pilots need hours. Is it as bad in the US - were pilots are working for next to nothing just to get seat time and log hours on type?

2. A regional carrier here has a fleet of 19-seat Jetstreams. I fly on them quite a bit. Did you like flying this aircraft. It sure does have a high landing speed.

3. Air Traffic Controllers have an awesome public image . I think they have conviced the world they are more necessary than pilots. Does it draw the ire of pilots that ATCs make good $ right from the start (as opposed to struggling pilots)? I mean no matter how bad a situation gets, the controller is going home at the end of an emergency.

4. Please tell me you have never called PAN. PAN, PAN...lol

I may have some follow-ups. Great thread.

The effect is not "considerable". But, flight attendants, pilots, etc. do have a slightly-higher-than-average risk of a variety of cancers because of exposure to cosmic radiation.

Just what I remember from 10 years ago. I would try to provide a link/reference, but there's not a lot that you can access for free on pubmed.org.

shouldn't the tests be conducted prior to you flying in case, you know, they turn up positive?

This. Your flights are 6-12 hours, plenty of time to sober up. No wonder they never get positives. Hell you could drink with your buddies in first class for the first few hours of a Tokyo-NYC flight and come up clean from what you're describing.

A golf ball is traveling at a much lower Mach number. Drag is a function of velocity^2

dimples = turbulent flow = drag rise.

I would also imagine that dimples would also cause local supersonic flow on the fuselage, causing more shockwaves. The plane could then have to fly slower than it currently does to meet FAA noise requirements?

If an airplane was on a giant conveyor belt that matched it's speed exactly (so that the plane would appear at a stand-still to an outside observer) ... would the plane be able to take off?

The plane wouldn't be at a standstill if it's propellor or jets were producing thrust. The conveyor belt would simply make the wheels spin faster since they aren't receiving power from the engines anyway. Takeoff would proceed as normal.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

that is debatable.

op, this is an awesome thread. any 2p2er who flies with you owes you a beer (upon landing, of course).

along these lines, just thought of a question: are you familiar with LAX (or have you heard about it from your friends)? if so, can you explain why there are so many runway incursions? i know they reverse the runways often (the santa ana winds blow out to sea, while normally the wind blows inland off the pacific)... does that play a part?

thanks again for an awesome thread.

he could tell you, but then he'd have to....

you have spoke about the deterioration of the industry and that flying is not what it once was. Could you please expand on this little and give your view on what a career as a pilot is likely going to entail in the future?

you say you'd be totally against opening up the airline industry to competition.

Obviously it would be bad for you as a successful pilot at a big airline. What do you think you would think about it if you had no connections with the airline industry, but knew what you know now? In other words, would it be good for the customers?

Of course. No offense but the major european and asian carriers are much higher-quality than US/Canadian ones.

EDIT: I'd like to hear OP's answer as well as obv the question was asked to him!

I am flying tomorrow morning, Baltimore to Sarasota, straight through the Atlantic surge and then directly into the tail end of Ida.

Klonopin will be flying with me.

Assimilation has never been my strong suit.

I remember in the movie The Day After Tomorrow, one of the kids on the plane saying that turbulence virtually NEVER brings a plane down.

These guys seem to think I'll be OK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztFbe...rom=PL&index=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNwf_...aynext_from=PL

Confirm, please.

I mean, roger, Roger.

I'll bite. The same reason they don't have stitching like a baseball?

Now you're talking about an outside loop and it would be impossible in an airliner...they're not stressed for that amount of negative G force. Aerobatic pilots do this stunt at airshows sometimes, but their planes are built for it.

I know that my brother told me that when he was in Air Force flight training, the T-38 (supersonic jet trainer) would use 10,000 feet in the loop. Probably the same order of magnitude for a Boeing, but it might vary by a few thousand feet.

What exactly are you planning?

This is a famous adage in the flying world and springs from truth. I remember being told when I got my private license, "This is a license to learn." Very true.

As you go along, you do some stupid things and if you're lucky they start forming your bag of experience. If you're unlucky...well, there's another flying quote from the 1930s attributed to Captain A.G. Lamplugh :

"Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect."

Yes, I've been bored on a plane but I've never experience the sheer terror. I've had some instances where my sphincter tightened, but it was never terror. I'll post a good one later today about a complete engine failure I had in a single engine plane while flying in clouds over mountains.

I've heard this as "...the altitude above you, the runway behind you and the fuel you left behind."

All true. Better to be at 10,000' when the engine fails than to be down at 100' buzzing your girlfriend's house. Making a takeoff from an intersection on a runway might not seem like a good idea when the trees at the end of the runway begin to fill your windscreen on the takeoff roll. And, of course, fuel just means more options if the weather goes bad.

Hey thanks.