milliondollaz,

agreed. OP is doing a great job.

No private restroom, but it would be a good idea in today's security conscious environment. Pre-9/11 we used to come and go at our whim. Now we're supposed to have a flight attendant ensure everyone in 1st class is seated, block the aisle with a cart and use a code word on the intercom to indicate it's safe to come out. We only come out for physiological needs.

On the ground, the plane is usually connected to a ground supply of conditioned air (the big yellow tube connected to the bottom or side of the airplane). If this is unavailable (or is not set to a correct temperature) we fire up the APU (Auxillary Power Unit), which is a small turbine engine which can provide bleed air to power the A/C packs and also provide the aircraft with electrical power. If you're sweating on the plane, mention it to the flight attendant so that the bonehead pilots fire up the APU.

For engine start, the A/C packs must be turned off as the APU bleed air is used to start the engine. Once the engines are running, the packs can be run off the engine bleed air.

For some reason, at this point I'm reminded of the workings of a jet engine. Put very simply, there are four steps to the workings of a jet: Suck, Squeeze, Bang and Blow. Suck = the intake of air; Squeeze = the compression of the air to a high pressure (achieved by compressor blades); Bang = combustion; Blow = exhaust/thrust.

I use the pillows all the time. They are replaced on each flight.

International FAs are the more senior ones, hence older (often 60+). We get young ones on occasion if they have to use a reserve FA to fill in for someone who calls in sick. Also, my airline puts at least two "speakers" on each international flight, i.e., someone who speaks the language of the destination country. In some cases these can be young FAs as they don't go strictly by seniority to fill this requirement.

+1

do you have an estimate for the number of flights that have a marshal or some sort of federal officer aboard that is working as undercover security just in case something happens? or is that stuff just in movies?

Once upon a time it was common for airline pilots to encourage their son or daughter to follow in their footsteps. Not any more. It's a great job, but the profession is a mere shadow of what it once was. I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to get into it. It you go into it, just be satisfied to do it for the love of flying. Don't expect a stable, financially rewarding career.

I don't think I ever really thought about it before, but I have never been on a foreign carrier. I hear good things about the service on many of them, especially Singapore. (I can tell you they have some hot flight attendants; we stay at the same hotel in Moscow.) In the U.S., it's been a race to the bottom for many years. New low-cost airlines are constantly springing up and often getting sweetheart deals from cities on tax breaks, etc, because the local politicians want to be able to bring cheap airfare to their constituents. I know when JetBlue started, they got their Airbuses with payments deferred for 3 years. With zero-time employees and almost zero cost for equipment, they were certainly well positioned to compete with legacy carriers.

Flying in Africa (and many parts of South America) is certainly a lot different. We have special procedures to ensure positional awareness which includes position reporting on a common VHF frequency. Air Traffic Control over there is often in a non-radar environment. With the current malaria situation, I try to avoid Africa. Not to mention that in at least one of our destinations over there (Lagos) we actually have an armed convoy to take us to and from the hotel, which is in a gated compound. No thanks.

Good for your Budweiser pilot. Best pilot success story I've heard!

Yes, we can leave the cockpit during flight but only by complying with some security requirements (see answer to previous post).

Without a doubt, my favorite destination right now is Nice, France. About the worst thing I can say about Nice is that the beach is rocky. Not a busy airport, so easy to fly in and out of; small airport, so quick walk in and through security (unlike some airports where we seem to walk a half mile getting to the plane); shortest van ride to the hotel we have, about 10 minutes (vs. 1.5 to 2 hours in Moscow or Sao Paulo); hotel has free WiFi (unusual overseas); hotel is right on the French Riviera; skiing a 1 Euro bus ride away; Monte Carlo a 1 Euro bus ride away. Yeah, Nice is good.

Anyone ridiculous in the jumpseat? Nope. No good stories there. I heard of a crew that had Don Adams on their flight around 10 years ago. He sat up front in row one. After parking at the gate, the Captain reached back, opened the cockpit door and said to the First Officer (in his best Don Adams voice): "Well...we made it!" Don Adams then said (in the same voice): "I heard that!".

Also I heard about Leslie Nielson going on one of our flights. He poked his head in the cockpit and said: "I just want you both to know...we're all counting on you." He said he feels like he has to do that. The crew loved it.

As far as what plane I enjoyed the most, I always love the one I'm flying. The CRJ (50 passenger jet) was a blast to fly, but of the larger aircraft I would have to say the 757 is the most fun. It's got a high power to weight ratio and really handles like a sports car compared to the station wagon of the 767.

Sure I've seen guys do things wrong. Never to the point where I freaked out, and sometimes I've chimed in to tell them they set a wrong altitude (for example). Most Captains will tell you when you jumpseat that he considers you another crew member and to speak up if you see something you don't like. I'm happy to tell you that the vast majority of airline pilots treat the job with a great deal of professionalism and the crew concept works well to mitigate mistakes.

I doubt it, and I've accidently left mine on for an entire flight in the cockpit. Sometimes there can be an annoying bleedover into our communications which is caused by transmissions from the cell phone, but even this is a pretty minor issue. You may be right about it being more of an issue with more phones on. I really don't know.

Still, I hope they never allow cell phone usage on the planes. Bad enough I have to listen people's inane conversations everywhere else in the world; give me some peace on an airplane!

LOL, can't really answer that. People are people and they all have their own interests at heart. There's no shortage of stuff to bitch about in this industry.

United Airlines has been on life support for a couple of years now. Their CEO, Tilton, has raped the company. After keeping the company afloat on the backs of labor (huge pay cuts), he awarded himself and other top managers mega-millions in bonuses and then even declared a stock dividend, which is rare at any airline and unheard for one which just exited bankruptcy and remains in such a precarious state. But he was the majority stock holder, so he did ok. They recently parked all of their 737s and many people think their demise is imminent. Ironic, because just 10 years ago United was the pinnacle of the industry and the place many pilots wanted to be.

No. I think it's an option on all new jets, but it's up to the buyer specification. The only fleet of ours which has the HUD is the 737-800. Not even sure our 777s have it, but they might. I've never flown with a HUD but I hear it's pretty s***-hot and makes a landing in zero-zero* a piece of cake.

[*zero-zero - zero foot ceiling; zero feet visibility. Back in the old days this was known as W0X0F, pronounced Wocks-Off. It's no longer a term used since we went to ICAO terminology about 15 years ago, but ask any pilot who was flying before about 1994 and he will know what W0X0F means. (W= Indefinite ceiling; 0 = 0 foot ceiling; X = Sky obscured; 0 = 0 feet visibility; F = Fog).]

You've found my Achilles heel of aviation; I really don't know much about air races, but I think the airplanes are pretty cool. The pilots have very big....watches.

Thanks. I shot a 91 today and barely beat the daylight to finish. Beautiful day though.

I'll bite, what's the Black Swan?

I would assume your ability to really stay on top of the "little things" is superior to that of the average Joe. You probably don't have buddies that are obligated to say things like "good thing you don't have a job that requires attention to detail" during every home game. True?

Haven't read Outliers yet, though a good friend has it to pass to me when he finishes. (Are you reading this Rick? How long does it take you to read a book ffs?)

Most lay people assume that the First Officer (or co-pilot as they usually say) is sort of an apprentice to the actual pilot. In fact, both pilots are trained to the same standards. I have a type rating on the Boeing 757/767 and could legally fly as Pilot-In-Command (Captain). The only reason I'm in the right seat and the other guy is in the left seat is that he was hired before me. It's not a meritocracy and certainly not skill based. The one and only way to move to the left seat is to (1) have people ahead of you on the seniority list either retire or die or (2) have the airline grow which means about 6 new Captains and First Officers per aircraft. I've been in both seats and the left seat is more comfortable.

CRM, Cockpit Resource Management, has been the buzzword in the industry for about 15 years now. It recognizes the value and importance of input from every crew member. This even extends to flight attendants. I once had two flight attendants tell me of an unusual sound and vibration at the rear of the plane (an MD-88). These were two FAs I had flown with many times and they were experienced and knew what was normal and what wasn't. Based on that alone, we had maintenance investigate and they found out-of-tolerance turbine blades on the left engine which could have caused some serious problems at some point.

There have been many accidents where a contributing factor was the reluctance of a subordinate crew member to speak up. TWA flew into Mt. Weather near Dulles airport over Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, killing all on board. Both the FO and Flight Engineer (FE) spoke up once, but lacked conviction and backed down because of the Captain's certainty that everything was OK. Avianca ran out of fuel in a DC-8 (4 engine jet) flying into JFK because of cultural differences which caused the FO to be very non-assertive with the controller.

At this point in my career, I have absolutely no qualms in speaking up when something doesn't feel right. Most pilots err on the side of safety. No one gives us extra pay or a pat on the back for pushing a bad situation and succeeding; but if we fail there will be plenty of Monday morning quarterbacks telling us what screw ups we were.

Ahh this is the greatest thread.

Sterling VA

You should go ahead and talk to the pilots you see. Most pilots really like doing PR for the industry and our profession. I would be very surprised if they mind.

When I was flying light airplanes, I remember taking a high school buddy of mine on a trip to the Bahamas. We stopped in Jacksonville Florida on the way south and spent the night with my aunt and uncle. I had a hard time sleeping that night just thinking about the flight the next day from West Palm Beach to Freeport: 70 miles of ocean to cross in a single engine plane.

We flew to West Palm and I filed the flight plan for the Bahamas. We got the required life vests and raft for the crossing and then took off. Minutes after takeoff, the shore line was receding behind me and nothing but water in front. I imagined every sort of odd sound from that engine and I guess I was about as nervous as a knocked up nun.

Fast forward to early 90s and I'm flying the J-32 (19 seat turboprop) for United Express out of Dulles. On flights to Islip NY we would go out over the ocean, at night, about 50 miles. This made me nervous too.

After the move to jets, I became very comfortable with the inherent reliability of the engines and the single engine performance of the plane. Flying the MD-88 to Nassau from NY? No problem.

When I moved to international flying, I did give some thought to crossing thousands of mile of cold North Atlantic water in a plane with 2 engines, but after a couple of crossings I can honestly tell you I feel as comfortable and relaxed as if I were sitting on my living room couch surfing 2+2.

BTW, there was a day when at least 3 engines were required for an ocean crossing. With the improved (and proven) reliability of jet engines, the FAA and other countries' aviation authorities approved ETOPS certification for certain jets. ETOPS stands for Extended Twin engine Operations, though I've also heard it stands for Engines Turn or People Swim...ha ha, good aviation humor huh?

Also, if you're interested, ask if you can visit the cockpit when you board your next flight. We do that all the time for our flights.

One real good story on this: in Amsterdam we had lady bring her two little kids up to see the cockpit and then she just headed back to her seat, leaving them with us. Cute little kids, boy and girl about 4 and 5 years old. We put them in the right seat, and then started showing them some of the bells and whistles and lights. After about 2 minutes, it became very apparent that they didn't speak a word of English, so now the Captain starts in with: "Do you like gladiator movies? Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

Have you even seen a grown man naked?

Steve - great thread! It trails the "Donut Poll" and "The Official Wrestlemania Thread" in popularity but it is 2x better than "How to ask out a Poker Room Waitress".

well the interesting cases that Outliers look at are cultures where there is strict stratification between rank, like this is apparently why Korean Air had 99999x more crashes than the average airline in the 80's-90's. it might be hard for you to say since i'd assume you don't fly with many Korean pilots. also are the JFK air traffic controllers as abrasive as they are described to be?

Yeah, everyone knows the stats. But with flying it's more of a visceral thing. A car breaks down, you pull over. A plane breaks down, well...

Most accidents are not caused by one thing going wrong. There is almost always a chain of events which led to it. This in itself may not be comforting, but we have so many procedures and checks in place to break the chain that it's unlikely a decently trained crew will ever get to that point.

The engines themselves are extremely reliable. A jet engine is pretty simple in concept and isn't trying to beat itself to death the way the old piston engines were. The airplane will fly fine on one engine and every takeoff is predicated on having a worst case engine failure, i.e. right at liftoff. This is worst case because the airplane is heavy (still has all its fuel) and slow (which means less control effectiveness). We practice those in the simulator all the time. I've never had an engine failure in a jet aircraft. (Did have one in a single engine piston plane, but that's another story.)

Airframe icing used to be a big consideration in the early days of airlines and was still a consideration when I flew turboprops and we cruised around at 16,000-20,000 feet in the weather in the northeast. But on larger jets, we cruise above 30,000, usually above the clouds, at temperatures too low for ice formation (there is no liquid water to form ice when the temp is below -40) and we also have very effective anti-icing capability using hot bleed air from the engines routed directly to wing leading edges and the engine intakes.

One of the most serious things that can happen aboard a plane today is smoke or fire. We do not screw around trying to troubleshoot this stuff; the first thing on any checklist for this is: CONSIDER AN IMMEDIATE LANDING. That's why we're so strict on the "no smoking in the lavs" rule.

Don't know if that helped really, but believe me safety really is the number one consideration of pilots. We won't do it if we don't think it's safe.

great work OP and thanks for an interesting thread.

So after 9-11 there was talk of arming pilots and sealing off the cabin in order to prevent hijackings. What are your thoughts on that? Would sealing off cabins simply be too expensive?

For a couple of years I used to fly our shuttle operation out of La Guardia. We flew to Boston and to Washington D.C. (National airport). La Guardia's runways are both 7000' long; DCAs long runway is 6869' long. These are shorter than most fields that scheduled airlines fly into.

A lot of pilots consider the River Visual approach into DCA to be, well I don't want to say unsafe, but let's say "less than optimum." I always enjoyed it...lots of opportunity to yank and bank the airplane as you fly down the Potomac River. However, the safest approach is a long straight-in approach which is very stable (i.e. on speed with a constant descent rate). The River Visual has you banking the entire time to follow the river and then turning into the runway over the 14th street bridge while about 500' AGL (Above Ground Level). You can't screw around looking for that greaser landing; you've got to get it on and get it stopped. For pilots who don't fly in to DCA regularly this can be more...exciting.

ok that won't fly in this thread

i was told by a pilot that there are always guns aboard the plane

Is there a safety advantage to certain carriers only flying one type of plane (ie Southwest)? When you show up to work is it possible you will fly one of several different aircraft you are rated for? Obv very subjective, but is there any real skill difference in hiring from one major carrier to another?

Great thread.