Quote:
Originally Posted by ElliotR
1. Since it's fairly obvious you don't fly for UAL, can you comment on why your airline doesn't make ATC communications available to pax a la UAL's "Channel 9"?
2. What is your favorite airplane to fly? If not big iron, which is your favorite airliner to fly?
3. Have you ever filed a NASA ASRS form? Does your airline or union do anyting to encourage or discourage use of ASRS?
4. Were you flying on 9/11? If so, TR?
(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.
Last edited by W0X0F; 06-18-2014 at 12:46 PM.