also, he provided a shining example of how to make a good OP for an ask me thread.

Although there are varying degrees of competence (as in any job I suppose), I've never flown with anyone whose skills were so bad that I was overly concerned. I remember one instance, however, when I was checking out a new First Officer (that's what we call them, not "co-pilots") for my airline. Before we went flying he was making small talk with me and asked if I had ever been scared while flying this particular airplane. This question seemed very odd coming from another airline pilot. I considered and told him, honestly, that I couldn't think of any such instance. Then we went to fly our five scheduled flights for that day.

It was a windy, gusty day and I flew the first round trip while he handled radios, etc. and got a feel for line operations. Then I let him fly to Cleveland and told him that if at any point during the approach he was feeling uncomfortable to let me know and I would assume flying duties...it really was a windy day for a first time in the plane.

His approach was ok, but at about 25 feet in the air, over the runway, he chopped power which is the way you would do it in a light general aviation airplane, but definitely not in a larger transport category aircraft. We were falling like a rock for what was sure to be an extremely hard landing, if not an accident, when I shouted "I've got it" and applied some power to smooth out the landing, which ended up to be very acceptable due to this action.

As we taxiied, my mind was a cascading torrent of possible comments but I held it until we got to the gate and the passengers were getting off. Then I turned to him and said "NOW, I've been scared".

BTW, judgment is a completely different arena from skill and there have been a handful of guys who I wouldn't fly with as a passenger and wouldn't let anyone I cared about on their plane either. And I'm not the only pilot who feels this way about some of them.

Sorry to disappoint on the flight attendants (the new name for stewardesses), but I'm married and have been a good boy. Had a few opportunities but passed. Usually not hard on my airline as hotties are few and far between. I do know of several other pilots who have "indulged."

This is so there won't be obstacles to a smooth evacuation in case it becomes necessary.

Might have helped with my wife, but that's it.

It might have scored me a suite at Caesar's once. I took my wife to see Cher's opening night there 2 years ago (that's how much I sacrifice for this woman) and because we were flying non-rev (i.e. for free) and the flight were looking full, we couldn't be sure which flights we would get. Not wanting to check my wife's bag, containing items that wouldn't get through TSA security, I wore my uniform so that I could take her stuff with me through the security checkpoints (pilots are allowed liquids, etc).

We made it to Vegas and there we are on line to check in at Caesar's, me in uniform. When we were about #4, a lady came over and took us out of line and led us to a door labeled something like "Platinum Members" (can't remember what it said for sure). I had no idea what this was about, but once inside they told us they were giving us a 2,200 sq ft suite for no additional cost. I wanted to know why, but didn't want to screw this up so I just happily accepted without a word excepts "Thanks."

Might have been the uniform or, as my brother later pointed out, might have been my last name which is not that common and is the same as one of the top guys at Harrah's (at that time).

Yeah, sucks doesn't it? At least on international flights we still get decent food. They have a menu in First Class that usually has 4 choices of entree and the pilots choose from this. Out of JFK, the steak is usually pretty good.

This is a result of cost cutting efforts. Ticket prices are much lower today than 20-30 years ago...something has to give so that airline management can make their million dollar bonuses.

Cogently stated. Yes, I hate the airport environment too. Flying is just not what it once was and it's not made any better by the inane announcements from gate agents and FAs (="Flight Attendants", an abbreviation I will use henceforth itt).

OP,

I have days when I'm at my sharpest, and days when I'm just "off" - absent-minded, distracted, etc. Maybe I didn't sleep well, ate something weird, or whatever. I assume that most people have days when they're considerably less than their best. What about airline pilots and what about you? Have you ever been out-of-sorts enough in the morning to think "Man, I'm not sure I should fly a plane today"?

In % terms how in control are you the pilot of the plane?

Computers/Systems etc

Way, way, WAAAAAY out of line. If true, they absolutely deserve to be on the street. I still don't see how it's possible and I wonder if they were, in fact, asleep. They may have thought their story with the laptops sounded better than falling asleep. Either is inexcusable.

Does that mean I've never slept while flying? No. When you fly a 2-man, back-side-of-the-clock seven hour leg, it's hard to avoid the need for a 10 minute power nap. We have such flights (JFK to Ireland or Edinburgh) and mosts pilots find it safer to give in at some point rather than try to fight it and then conduct the approach and landing in this state. BIG NOTE: we NEVER do it without first telling the other guy! "You wide awake?" "Yeah" "I need 10" "OK, I got it" As more than one Captain has said in his pre-flight briefing to his First Officer: "Don't let me wake up and find you asleep!"

As for actively flying, not much. I usually hand fly to 18,000 and then click on the autopilot. Sometimes, I fly it all the way to cruise altitude before doing this. Sometimes (if workload is high due to weather or a tricky departure with lots of turns and speed restrictions) I'll turn it on much lower. As low as 1,500'. The reason is that this reduces workload for both pilots and increases the margin of safety.

Flying in to the destination, most pilots will click off the A/P once they are established on final for the runway. I've turned it off as high as 18,000 but that's not common. If you ever sit up front on a small regional jet, you can usually hear when they turn the A/P off. We call the sound the "cavalry charge" because it sounds vaguely like that. It's a little trill that repeats 3 times whenever the A/P is turned off or becomes disconnected.

We couldn't have had a better representative for pilots than Sully. I've seen him on several interviews and I'm so glad it was someone like him vs. some of the other tools I've known in my career.

As to the landing itself, the mechanics of landing an Airbus in a calm body of water are not that demanding. But to get to that point, Sully and Skiles did a superb job: running checklists, communicating, considering alternatives, and throughout it all keeping calm and professional. We all hope we would perform as well but you never know until you're in the situation.

Cold air has more "lifties" in it. (That's a phrase I remember my brother using back when he was flying C-141s in the Air Force and I was flying light airplanes).

Basic aerodynamics: an airfoil (the wing, the propeller) likes denser air. The three things that reduce air density are temperature, altitude and humidity. Thus, a takeoff at a high, hot, humid airport (e.g. Denver in the summer) is worst case and will require a longer takeoff run to generate the same lift (which at some level translates to the greatest number of molecules per unit time passing over the wing). This is very apparent to the pilot. I had a takeoff in Istanbul last August which used nearly 10,000 of runway to get airborne.

Lest you think we just go out and "give it a try," we have detailed performance charts which take into account all these factors and let us know if we can perform the takeoff, including the worst case scenario of an engine failing right at liftoff. At most airlines, this calculation is done for the pilots but in the General Aviation world pilots actually consult the performance charts themselves.

So, yes, cold air does give the prop a better "bite." The prop is more effective because the air is denser.

It's really great grist for the fantasy mill, but I'm lame in that regard. On international flights you wouldn't touch most of the FAs. You see a better crop in domestic flying. I'm sure it does go on, but I can't give you any good stories. Sorry.

(Probably the closest I had was when a rare young FA on my flight made a suggestive remark about needing a "good massage" as we were getting off the plane in Nice. It crossed my mind that it was a big signal, but I didn't act on it. Again, sorry.)

I had a friend who jumpseated on Southwest (known for their young, spirited FAs) and when the Captain saw him appreciating their lead FA, he said to the FO (First Officer), "Should I show him?" The FO nodded and the Captain pulled out a wallet fanfold showing a picture of that FA naked. Then he let the fanfold open and showed at least a dozen pics of various FAs he had "photographed."

I'm here now...I just can't stay on 24/7. I'll probably check in here at least 2 or 3 times a day and try to respond to new posts.

I won't lie to you: the answer is no. I have several friends who are and they did it in general aviation airplanes, which would require some contortionist skill.

I knew a Captain at my previous airline who had a girlfriend who flew there and they would "Buddy Bid", i.e. try to get the same trips together. Through circumstances I won't bore you with, it was found that she was giving him a blowjob in the cockpit during flight with 29 paying passengers on board.

The young FO (built like a brick ****house btw) admitted to it and both were fired. The Captain, with the help of the union, got his job back about 18 months later with backpay. The FO ended up suing the company and somehow got a 7 figure settlement.

Epilog: that Captain later went to jail for date-rape of a flight attendant.

I'm still curious about the Minneapolis situation and exactly what the autopilot does or does not do. Do you program in your destination or just give it a heading and altitude? I ask because if you actually set your destination I would assume it would have started their descent at the appropriate time or at least alerted them to the fact they should be descending and were about to blow by their destination at 38,000 ft.

Thanks John, but I'm off flying until the 25th so I'll be able to check in frequently in the meantime. Trying to figure out how to fill my days and I'm heading out to play golf as soon as I knock out some of these answers. I'm also thinking of hopping a flight to Vegas for a few days. I keep getting these room offers from Luxor ($36 a night) so I think I may pull the trigger.

What do you do when you fly to a city and don't fly again for a day or whatever? Just hang out at the hotel or do you sight-see as much as you can?

I've jumped out of an airplane twice and found it exhilarating. I especially like the fact that the chute is an airfoil and can be flown. I've had several friends who were skydivers and I've been to a few jump sites (West Point airport in Virginia comes to mind).

As to the state of commercial aviation, much of the problem has been the paradigm shift in the major/regional airline model. Prior to 1997 (when regional jets first came out), a regional airline operated small turboprops which served small markets (e.g. State College, Elmira) and fed the larger hubs for the majors. The lines were pretty clear cut.

With the advent of the regional jet, the line got blurred and management saw an opportunity to whipsaw the pilot groups (not sure if this term is used outside of the aviation industry, but it refers to the practice of pitting one group's interests against another). They gave more of the mainline flying to the ever more capable regionals (which now fly 90 seat aircraft in many cases) because the regional had cheaper wages.

The flying public is unaware. That regional plane doesn't say "Freddie's Regional Airline" on the side of it. Instead it has the paint job and name of the major airline partner, giving the flying public the false sense that this is the same well-established, experienced airline that they bought a ticket on.

This topic is epic and I could spend hours on it, but then it would be tl;dr, so I'll stop here for now and maybe add more thoughts later.

Have you ever forgotten to put the passenger cabin A/C on or accidentally left the "fasten seatbelt" sign on for a long time?

The 9/11 crash where the bad guys had all the passengers move to the back of the plane.
Could that have moved the center of gravity back
far enought to make the plane unstable and hard to control.

How much flying involves using the rudder?
Seems just ailerons and elevator would get the job done most of the time.

Forgot your other questions. Good for you with the Private license. Every pilot remembers his first solo.

Most desirable position? FedEx and UPS have been top of the heap for some time as far as wages/work rules but then you've got all that back-side-of-the-clock flying to consider. It can take years off your life.

A good corporate job is nice, but rare. Many times a corporate pilot lives his life on a beeper, having to be available at the whim of the owner. I had a friend who used to fly a G-III here locally and sometimes the owner would tell them to have the plane ready for a flight to "points west," i.e. he wouldn't even give them the destination until they were airborne! So they would flight plan for San Francisco and be ready to change things.

The pinnacle of corporate flying is with a big company like Coca-Cola that has a fleet of airplanes and the pilots actually have schedules. But with any company, the corporate fleet is often the first thing to go if the economy goes south. Just not good PR (as we saw with GM in front of Congress) to tool around in a bizjet when times are tough.

That brings us back to the airlines. Still probably the best thing out there. One basic problem is that you are tied by seniority to your airline. Lost your job? Start over with another airline at the bottom of the seniority list.

what's with the "drunk pilot" reputation.

Well, by definition, yes. I've seen things in the air I could not identify. But I never have seen anything that I thought was other-wordly.

I have, however, flown with some pilots who have stories and if I could relate them completely and correctly I would. Just recently I had a Captain tell me about an experience he and his FO had with a very strange sighting. I wish I could remember the details for you.

Back in August I did have a very strange sighting while taxiing out at JFK. We were headed to Malaga Spain and while number 6 or 7 for takeoff with the nose pointed Southeast on taxiway Charlie, we could see a UFO coming in from the south aimed right at the departure end of Runway 22.

As it got closer we could finally identify it: an ultralight aircraft. It was descending and crossed the numbers of 22R at about 200 feet in the air and continued to descend to about 20 feet over the cargo ramp, before turning to the south and climbing out.

We, as well as several other aircraft on the ground, had alerted the tower to this and they finally got 3 police helicopters in the air. But by that time the ultralight was probably 1-3 miles south and down low -- very hard to find. I never saw anything in the paper about this and never heard the outcome.

I wanted to call the New York Post from Malaga on Skype when I got there, but the hotel internet was down (conspiracy? ;-) ) so I never did.

Terrorists testing JFK response? Or just some crazy clown flying where he shouldn't have been?

That's why the FAA gave us oxygen masks. Actually, I think they're probably for a decompression, but I've seen them used for fart avoidance.

Do you have a private restroom in the cockpit? I've never seen a pilot leave the cockpit to take a leak, but I guess I don't really watch the cockpit door very often.

How come when one boards the plane on a summer day, the AC is off, and everyone is sweating and mad, and the AC only gets turned on right before leaving the gate?

Would you every put your head on an airplane pillow? Is it cleaner or dirtier than the headrest?

Why are international FAs worse? Uglier, sluttier, or both?