Reminds me of Sully's movie. Even though I knew (from you) that the movie was necessarily overdramatized at times, this scene in particular still gives me serious chills.

LINK, because the youtube embed won't work for me today...

W0X0F, have someone ever been left behind in one of your airline planes? Woman wakes up alone on dark, parked plane

Will the crew get fired over this?

But they apologized!

I’ve never heard of this happening while I’ve been here. The pilots have zero exposure on this. The FAs are the ones required to be on the plane whenever passengers are on board. Pilots can legally leave as soon as the door is open.

Oh, and in answer to your question: I’m actually not sure, but it wouldn’t shock me.

Personally, I almost always stay until the last of the passengers deplane. The only exceptions to this are (1) when we are late and I need to get to my next plane right away so it’s not late too, and (2) I have to run to catch my commute flight home.

I’ve noticed that after all passengers are off the plane, the FAs do a last check of the cabin and the lavs to make sure there is no one on board.

bump

It's not your imagination. Although most planes are now equipped with GPS, the underlying airways are built as segments between discrete points. Those discrete points can be VORs (actual physical ground-based NAVAIDs) or simply points defined by their LAT/LON. At these points, the heading usually changes resulting in the turn you're observing.

For aircraft not equipped with GPS or some other form of long range nav (such as IRS), the LAT/LON defined airways are not available and they are limited to the standard Victor airways (below 18,000') or Jet airways (above 18,000').

Quite often, we also file point-to-point rather than using defined airways. It would be very unlikely that all the points are co-linear. Although I haven't had this happen recently, I used to routinely get cleared direct to the Wilkes-Barre VOR (LVP, located in Pennsylvania) after contacting Los Angeles Center late at night on a red-eye from Las Vegas to JFK. This kind of direct routing would not be offered to a plane not equipped with long range nav capability. (ATC knows our equipment and nav capabilities from codes we use on our filed flight plan. You can see a list of these codes here.)

As for being inefficient, "direct to destination airport" would always be the shortest path but it's just not practical for the amount of traffic we have. Using defined airways brings some order to the flow.

Finally had a TwoPlusTwo guy along on a flight. That's Mike (mcc235) in the right seat of my 757 before we left for Atlanta two weeks ago. He stayed with me for the plane change and flight to Tampa, where we played some poker at the Seminole Hard Rock. The next day we parted ways, as he headed back to New York and I flew from Tampa to Amsterdam.

curious about your opinion on Schiphol? i have somewhat limited international flight experience (maybe a dozen flights) but it struck me as one of the best airports i've been to. i've flown form PDX to AMS direct several times and it's been a very good experience from beginning to end.

I'm curious to know what you think makes Schipol "one of the best." Don't take that the wrong way; it's a fine airport and they do a very good job of managing traffic flow, especially on their method of metering departures so that the process from pushback to takeoff is usually accomplished without delays.

However, I see a few things that could elicit complaints. The layout of the terminals can be confusing for the unfamiliar passenger, and the walking distance to your gate can be really long. I was mentally comparing it to Atlanta on my last pass through Amsterdam. Mind you, I'm not overly fond of Atlanta and, everything else being equal, I'll always go for the trip that doesn't pass through Atlanta. However, the terminals are laid out in a very orderly pattern with a good transport system between all the terminals. Walking through Schipol is often a disorienting experience, I find.

Having said all that, there really is something about Amsterdam that I love. One of the things I really like is how everyone seems to get around on bicycle. I always get a bike from our layover hotel and explore the city or countryside.

we haven't had any challenges with the terminal layout, wayfinding or walking distance, but that may just be luck. i like that it's mostly clean, not dark/dingy/or tired, and there are actually several pretty good food options there if you have a layover. i also appreciate the easy connections to other transit options.

...and it means you're in Amsterdam, one of my favorite cities. I never realized i had a thing for 6' blondes on bikes until my first visit.

You make a compelling case, redeye.

Check out this Tokyo hotel room.
https://onemileatatime.com/tokyo-hot...ght-simulator/

Apologies for the awkward question, but how does a pair of pilots handle flatulence up front? I assume this would be an issue on any flight over a short couple hours. Is an effort made to get up and go to the bathroom for that need? Or do pilots simply “let go” in the cockpit seats...and if so, would there be a polite “excuse me”?

Incredible. Now I have to talk my wife into a trip to Japan.

Sort of ashamed to even bring this up, but one of the finalists on this season's Bachelorette is a Delta pilot. I know it's a big ecosystem, but I'm curious if W0X0F has heard any water cooler banter about this and how his co-workers feel about it...

Two questions.

1) Have you ever had to be involved in any airline litigation?

I ask because I turned on the TV last night and came upon this documentary about space shuttle flights. The first exchange I saw was:

WITNESS: How he survived, it was a miracle.
ATTORNEY: Then Howie survived?
WITNESS: No, 'fraid not. We lost Howie the next day.

which brings me to:

2) Over Macho Grande?

You would think that with the thousands of hours I’ve flown with other pilots this issue would come up with some frequency, but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been aware of someone fouling the flight deck. I remember one time the other pilot fessed up to sliding one out before I was even aware of it. Another time, I point blank asked the other guy and he owned up to it. Once (maybe twice) it was so bad I donned the oxygen mask and selected 100% oxygen.

I think a lot of guys will, if they feel one coming, call the FAs for a lav break.

First I’ve heard of this. I’m heading out on a trip tomorrow, so I’ll ask around.



(Tomorrow, I’m heading to Tampa and then Amsterdam the next day. Had an interesting trip this past Tuesday. Flew an empty 757 to Lakefront Airport in Cleveland where we picked up the Red Sox players who were in the All Star game, along with the coaching staff (with family and friends). Total of about 60 passengers were on board for the late flight to Boston.)

I’m not familiar with #1, but quoting Airplane! is not uncommon.

“There’s trouble in the cockpit.”

“The cockpit? What is it?”

“It’s the little space up front where the pilots sit. But that’s not important now.”

Oh, the first question wasn't anything specific about the Airplane! movies. Just the scene made me think of that.

I suppose any proceedings wouldn't probably be in a court of law, but are more of a review, a la Sully though, huh?.

Until such time as you retire, though, I want to wish you good luck. We're all counting on you.

Do the cabin crew carry anti anxiety medication like Valium or Xanax in case anyone has a Panic attack or a severe mental episode?

No. We rely on the good, old-fashioned face slap. 😁

Was this a regular 757 or are there some just for charters? I'm thinking mainly about the cabin layout. Who gets to sit in 1st class and who gets shoved to the way back?

To the best of my knowledge, our MLB charters are all flown with standard aircraft. It's up to the team to figure out who sits in First Class. Our NBA charters use specially configured 757s which have club seating and obviously lots of legroom.

Haha! I loved that movie is it a favorite among pilots?