How accepted are e-cigs for long flights (ie transcontinental)?

unacceptable for life, unacceptable for flying imo

(1) I've always like that too. It's a marketing decision and I'm not sure why it hasn't caught on throughout the industry. American used to have a camera in the cockpit looking forward (only on for takeoff and landing and there were often problems with the lighting) which I always enjoyed (this was in the mid-80s).

(2) My favorite light airplane to fly was my little Grumman Yankee, which had a max gross weight of 1,500 pounds and carried 22 gallons. It was very maneuverable and I used to love to do aileron rolls in it. Of the big iron, I really like the 757 and 767, though the 757 handles more like a sports car.

(3) Yes, I've submitted probably a half dozen ASRS reports in my time. One was followed up by a call from the ASRS people at Moffett Field because it was the first of its kind they had seen. I wrote up a flight I had on a plane with no flight attendant (the J-32) and had a 20-something Down's Syndrome passenger traveling alone who freaked out as soon as we entered a cloud. I had to go back to the cabin to soothe her and find a passenger to help and, when I returned to the cockpit, I found that we had busted an altitude assignment (the FO had been distracted by what was going on in the back).

My company (Delta) also has its own internal safety reporting mechanism, very similar to ASRS and highly encouraged by both the company and the union. It really is a good concept; find the systemic errors and get the word out to the pilots so we can be avoid them.

(4) I was in training in Atlanta for the MD-88 and had just come out of the simulator for a break when we were told of the first tower being hit. Then we all saw the second hit and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Seeing Atlanta airport, the busiest in the world, with no airplanes moving for the next three days was like a Twilight Zone episode. I expected to see Burgess Meredith come out on the ramp looking for books. (too obscure a reference? meaningless to anyone under 50 probably.)

Six months later I was furloughed for 39 months.

I get absolutely freaked out when I go through turbulence nad the plane starts bouncing around. Please tell me there is no way for the plane to just plummet to earth like a lawn dart.

I'm 34 and I got it. Keep up the good work.

Probably pretty accurate. Once we get above 18,000 (Positive Control Airspace; no up there who's not on an instrument flight plan) we can pretty much rule out accidents related to other aircraft (i.e. midairs). The approach and landing is the most critical due to the congestion and time spent at those low altitudes. Communications and vigilance is the order of the day in that environment.

To add to what others have said: Amazing thread, filled with both great questions and great answers.

Can you elaborate on this? What sorts of judgments are you talking about exactly?

Less seriously, I've had a theory for a long time that airlines deliberately inflate the "estimated arrival time" by 10 or 15 minutes, because flights always seem to arrive a little earlier than scheduled, and I think the airlines just want to make the passengers feel like they're getting in early when actually they're just right on time. Care to confirm?

They haven't issued a finding on that one yet, but there was initial talk of it being related to pitot tubes being iced up. Those really are essential to safe flight and it's why we have triple redundancy and also why they are continuously anti-iced (heated) during flight. This is just speculation at this point.

One thing that can kill any airplane is a really mature thunderstorm; we avoid these things at all costs and will go hundreds of miles out of our way to avoid really bad storms. If they were having problems with their weather radar and flew through one, that's a possibility, but not sure if this could ever be determined. We do see lots of convective activity around the equator. They call it the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) and it's where the Northern and Southern hemispere airmasses masses meet and produce storms. It's been a rare trip to Brazil where I haven't seem some lightening near the equator.

Because of where they went down and the lack of radar data, this one may never be completely explained.

There absolutely is and I know that Korean Air, for one, has gone to great lengths to train this cultural tendency out of their flight crews.

It used to be that way in U.S. airlines back in the 40s and 50s. Read "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernest K. Gann for a great look at these early days. It's a great book, probably my #1 aviation book ever.

Thanks AU2006 (gold?). And your answer is right on the money.

Answered previously, but I think the whole thing is way overstated. Just my opinion, but we all know that electronic stuff has been left on during flight (I've done it accidently) and somehow we survived.

Buy a ticket.

Never been faced with this situation and never heard any good stories, but the flight attendants would probably just give them a reprimand.

This is not uncommon and I've seen it on about 4 of my flights in the last two years. When we have a medical situation, we make a PA for doctors or nurses and we contact UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) over our SATCOM. This provides a phone patch directly to a doctor who then helps advise us on the correct course of action and whether or not a precautionary landing is advisable (a big deal when flying to Europe and the divert fields are Keflavik Iceland or Lajes in the Azores). So far, I haven't had to divert. The last guy I flew with has had two DOAs in the last year.

It dings a chime and lights a light over your seat. There's no annunciator panel at a Flight Attendant Command Post buried under Cheyenne Mountain. The response is a direct reflection on the kind of cabin crew you have (and how busy they are right at that moment).


Thank you very much for that, I really appreciate it. I've enjoyed it so far but I really should put a disclaimer to everyone that I could be wrong on some of this stuff. I'm not a spokesman for my airline and though I've been flying for over 30 years, I'm still learning. So if any pilot reading this (PilotMatt?) wants to correct me on anything, you won't hurt my feelings (well, maybe a little bit).

I'll post some good Chief Pilot stories from my time in that capacity at my previous airline. You wouldn't believe some of the knuckleheads I dealt with. Any Chief Pilot will tell you that 2% of the pilot group give you 98% of your headaches.

Probably depends on the game you bring to the table. I'm sorry to say that this was never my strong suit. Had a friend at my previous airline who told me a flight attendant left her panties on his hotel room doorknob. Subtle huh?

Extremely! You struck a nerve with this one. I still remember when they confiscated my fingernail clippers at security in Jackson MS 3 weeks after 9/11. The guy said I had to break off the little pointy part that folds out (never knew what that was for anyway). I told him I couldn't do that. He asked why not and I told him since he had just informed me that it was potentially lethal I couldn't take a chance of injuring myself and delaying the flight. He was not amused.

A few months later on an overnight in Norfolk, I purchased a manicure set at a dollar store because I saw that it contained cuticle scissors and my wife had just been saying a day earlier that she needed cuticle scissors. I thought, "For a buck I get to be a hero." Next day, TSA confiscates the set because of the cuticle scissors...little half inch curved scissors! I said to the guy, "You do realize that I sit in the cockpit and have available to me there a razor sharp crash axe?" He called over his supervisor who wanted to know if I had a problem. I said "No, I realize you have your rules, but this would not pass any reasonable person's litmus test for sanity." Again, not amused.

Yes, it's a joke...eyewash so that politicians can tell their constituents they have addressed the problem.

After the shoe bomber, they had us all removing our shoes. Why couldn't it have been a bra-bomber?

Damn, you're on to me!

Condolences on the lack of room for you big guys. It can really be torture enduring a long flight in a coach seat.

Thanks for the clarification Matt. I've never flown the bus and couldn't remember the specifics, just that it was the software that was somehow involved.

My people? I don't have people.

Never flown in there but I've heard it discussed by other pilots and, you are right, it would be on any short list of unsafe airports. Actually, I hate to say unsafe as we have the performance data to operate safely. So let's say "not optimum."

Crosswind landings are the best! I love teaching them.

Yes. PilotMatt is another pilot who has chimed in and I welcome his input. I'm sure he can fill some of the holes in my knowledge base.

What's the closest you've ever come to having an accident? What's the worst conditions you've landed in (if not the same as the first question?).

Jet engines are much more efficient at high altitude. Optimally, we would leave our cruise altitude in one continuous descent to landing. When we get down in the airport traffic area and get vectored around down low, we are burning fuel at a much higher rate than we do at altitude.

No parachutes on board and they wouldn't be much use without ejection seats. The last person I heard of who parachuted from an airliner was C.B. Cooper, and there's a lot of speculation that it wasn't successful.

Flying in fog? Easy. Landing in fog? Harder. The B-767 can do an autoland and land in zero visibility conditions, though we are not allowed to attempt a landing if the visibility is less than 500 feet horizontally.

We don't check luggage...it stays with us in the cockpit.

Hurricane Hunters actually fly right into the storms. The Navy uses a specially beefed up P-3 Orion and there are also some C-130s doing this job. Not a job I would care for.

oh wow, lol.

On the topic of security and you having mentioned fires on board being one of the biggest causes for alarm, why is it that it's still so easy to take a lighter on board? (my GF used to smoke and the first time we flew together I said "you can't take that on board", her response was something along the lines of "I do it all the time, they don't say anything").

It's quite ridiculous that I have been stopped for taking a pen on board (I kid you not, more than once, actually) and yet nothing for this.

lol. I'm ex UAL "management" (which basically means I was not in one of the unions) in the ground safety group, so I had the double whammy of being a representative of management with the pay and status below most union members. I know a few of the ground safety folks in your company. good people, very dedicated and quite knowledgable. hope your management doesn't mess with them like ours did. I agree, though, that tilton ran us into the ground. with the latest upper management hires, though, we were turning into your company, as many of the new occupants of wacker drive and elk grove village were once with your airline (I'm assuming I know which carrier you fly for).
without going into names and assuming my guess is right (did your ex flight safety director go to ual?), what's your opinion of him (MQ)? I worked under him a little while before I left but didn't get to form too much of an opinion. nothing hugely negative, though.

1. what is the nicest airport (architecturally/technologically/etc...) you have been to?

2. there any tips you can give average folks about air travel? just any general bits of useful info, or are we all doomed.