35 Secrets Your Pilot Won't Tell You.

[underpants]

“I’m constantly under pressure to carry less fuel than I’m comfortable with. Airlines are always looking at the bottom line, and you burn fuel carrying fuel. Sometimes if you carry just enough fuel and you hit thunderstorms or delays, then suddenly you’re running out of gas and you have to go to an alternate airport.” -Captain at a major airline

“The two worst airports for us: Reagan National in Washington, D.C., and John Wayne in Orange County, California. You’re flying by the seat of your pants trying to get in and out of those airports. John Wayne is especially bad because the rich folks who live near the airport don’t like jet noise, so they have this noise abatement procedure where you basically have to turn the plane into a ballistic missile as soon as you’re airborne.” -Pilot, South Carolina

“You may go to an airline website and buy a ticket, pull up to its desk at the curb, and get onto an airplane that has a similar name painted on it, but half the time, you’re really on a regional airline. The regionals aren’t held to the same safety standards as the majors: Their pilots aren’t required to have as much training and experience, and the public doesn’t know that.” -Captain at a major airline

“If you’re a nervous flier, book a morning flight. The heating of the ground later causes bumpier air, and it’s much more likely to thunderstorm in the afternoon.” -Jerry Johnson, pilot, Los Angeles

“Please don’t complain to me about your lost bags or the rotten service or that the airline did this or that. My retirement was taken to help subsidize your $39 airfare.” -Pilot, South Carolina

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/35-secrets-your-pilot-wont-tell-you-2399544/

[gateley]

1. Years ago I read a book titled "Safety Last" by Captain X - telling the truth

of what really goes on with the airlines pressuring the pilots to fly when conditions weren't optimal. I was reading it on a flight to Palm Springs, had to pack it in my suitcase on my way back because it scared me so badly. I had my private ticket, but it was up to ME when I flew -- not so when the people who are watching the bottom line are calling the shots.

[Buns_of_Fire]

28. "Captain X" was eventually revealed as Capt. Brian Power-Waters, IIRC.

(Don't ask me how or why I remembered that.:shrug:) I read it while on a flight, too, back in the days when I was still invincible. It almost turned me off commercial flying altogether -- but it took the TSA to drive the final nail in that coffin.

[gateley]

43. Ha! The TSA is far scarier, to be sure!

ETA: I just Googled him since you provided his name (correctly!!). Wow - he's prolific! Don't know if I want to read any more of his books, though:

http://www.brianpowerwaters.com/

[AndrewP]

2. Thank you Mr. Reagan for your help in screwing up the aviation industry

Fucker

[sarcasmo]

5. Ronnie Raygun screwed the airline industry and the trucking industry, what a guy.

[Bok_Tukalo]

10. A dirty little secret that Republicans and Democrats don't like ....

... deregulating the airline industry started under Carter.

[October]

46. Sad but true -- it was indeed Carter

[madmax]

39. Yes, he sure did. Whataguy! :puke: nt

[naaman fletcher]

12. Sure it would be better under the old system

but it would cost 2K to go from NY to Chicago.

[naaman fletcher]

15. FYI, Carter deregulated the airline industry, not Reagan. nt.

[AndrewP]

16. I still give discredit to Reagan for busting the Air Traffic Controllers

[Kievan Rus]

21. Reagan did more damage to America than Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined

[Rebubula]

30. Awesome

Just awesome hyperbole.


Well done.

If you were serious however....LOL WUT?

[eppur_se_muova]

36. I dunno -- how much damage did Mao or Stalin really do to America?

You could argue both were a boon to the defense "industry".

You gotta read it carefully. :)

[NC_Nurse]

3. Just watched a repeat of Frontline about the Buffalo, NY crash...very enlightening...

and frightening too.

[Pavulon]

11. That is a perfect example of trading dollars for lives. Colgan

put the wrong people in the cockpit and the results were predictable. Lying about weight is amazing, they were playing with rules that are written in blood.

[haifa lootin]

4. As a 20000 hour pilot, I can vouch for just about all of those.

It pretty much is the way of things. :-)

[underpants]

7. Okay have to ask

my cousin said that he read in Maxim (or something like that) that pilots stay in the same hotels and hotel rooms and leave porn under the mattresses for each other.... true?

I found it hard to believe but then again nothing surprises me anymore.

[W_HAMILTON]

41. I'm not a pilot...

...but I did formerly work at a hotel that had airline crews staying with us.

Yes, they were assigned the same rooms each night, but I never heard of them stashing porn under the mattress. Every now and then we would have to switch the airline rooms due to various reasons, and lord knows I would hear about it if a regular guest found porn under their mattress, but, nope, never a word.

Maybe this happened more back in the good 'ole days of paper porn instead of cyber porn :)

[trof]

45. Not porn mags, but we did have the 'dirties'.

In cockpit overheads and walls there are 'blank panels'.
Metal plates about 4" X 5" where additional electronic gear could be mounted if and when needed.
Loosen 4 screws and they popped right off.
Somehow, someone, got the bright idea of pasting photo cutouts from Playboy, Hustler, etc. on the backs of the panels.
As soon as we reached top of climb and things had settled down into the usual cruise operation, one of us would bring out a screwdriver and we'd 'check out the dirties'.
Juvenile, I know.
;-)

[Better Believe It]

8. Is this true about turbulence?

"“Pilots find it perplexing that so many people are afraid of turbulence. It’s all but impossible for turbulence to cause a crash. We avoid turbulence not because we’re afraid the wing is going to fall off but because it’s annoying.”

I hate flying because of potential turbulence and hate it even more when we run into the real thing.

It just makes me nervous.

[Exilednight]

13. It's true, turbulence is caused by cool and warm air meeting and the plane .............

flying into the wind. Wind is what keeps a plane in the air. Aircraft carriers turn into the wind due to the need of 35 mph head winds to launch an aircraft from their deck.

[Better Believe It]

14. I meant is it true about the crashing part. :)

[Exilednight]

17. Yes, it's true. The above was just the long way of explaining it. LOL ..... sorry. n/t

[Better Believe It]

19. Write whatever you have too that will calm my nerves about the turbulence part! LOL

[a la izquierda]

18. I hate turbulence...

my brother in law is a pilot, and he assures me it's normal. My last flight (last week), I was actually the calm one while we flew out of Houston around/through thunderheads. We were bouncing all over and the poor woman next to me was freaking out.

I take a xanax and do my best to relax. I have to fly a lot. Turbulence sucks, but I've only been on a plane once where the pilot made the flight attendants sit for an entire flight. That sucked (I barfed, but so did about 5 other people).

[haifa lootin]

24. Nothing to be ashamed of! I taught a kid to fly many years ago who got airsick every time

we flew...but he was determined and eventually got his license and then after college he joined the Air Force and became a real AF pilot. He retired 5 years ago and told me he never really got over it but learned to live with it...passing the physical was a real test of his mettle!

[Skittles]

37. I've always thought it was odd but

I get sick traveling any other way except flying - I'm car-sick, bus-sick, train-sick but have absolutely no problems on planes, even during turbulence. My mum's theory is that she was pregnant with me when she flew from England to America and so I just feel "at home" planes. :D

[a la izquierda]

44. It's unusual for me to get sick on planes...

but like you, I get sick on every other form of transportation. This flight was a doozy, though.

[haifa lootin]

22. Yes, it's true. I'm not aware of any accidents directly attributable to turbulence

at cruising altitude in modern aircraft. Back in the early 1900s it wasn't unheard of but even with the infancy of aircraft design, structural failure was quite rare.

Technically, some crashes from low altitude have resulted from turbulence if you consider wind shear a form of it as in the Delta flight 191 accident at Dallas back in the mid 1980s. Any loss or reduction in control close to the ground has the potential to be very serious, of course. But at regular enroute altitudes, spilled coffee is usually the worst thing that happens (unless people ignore the seat belt signs)

[Brickbat]

6. I admire pilots and flight attendants for trying to do a job they love squished among stupid

rules, greedy companies and clueless customers.

[Blue_Tires]

9. I KNEW IT!!

“No, it’s not your imagination: Airlines really have adjusted their flight arrival times so they can have a better record of on-time arrivals. So they might say a flight takes two hours when it really takes an hour and 45 minutes.” -AirTran Airways captain, Atlanta

[Renew Deal]

20. That was pretty interesting

Thanks for posting! :bounce:

[BeFree]

23. And

The CO2 released from airplanes in the upper atmosphere is the most damaging because there is nothing up there to absorb it. It just sits there gathering heat and altering the climate.

[haifa lootin]

25. That's interesting...what keeps it up there since it's heavier than air?

??

[BeFree]

29. Heat?

It holds heat.

If it didn't, it would fall to the earth and there would NOT be CO2 molecules floating in the air gathering more heat and warming the atmosphere ?

[haifa lootin]

33. Well, CO2 has a "specific heat" that's 80% of air's so it actually holds less heat.

Maybe it's magic.

Or maybe it's diffusion. Point is, carbon dioxide produced by airplanes is no more or less likely to be "up there" than that coming from any surface carbon oxidation. :-)

[BeFree]

34. So

According to you, all the CO2 drops to the ground?

And......surface CO2 rises?

If so, that's some magic 'splanation ya got there.

[haifa lootin]

38. haha...no, it gets mixed throughout the atmosphere by many mechanisms,

convection and advection, orography, diffusion. It isn't magic that tosses hailstones 10 miles high, (to illustrate a similar phenonemon) it's rising air. I'm fairly sure ice is heavier than air, too.
:-)

[Xenotime]

26. That alone makes me sick.

[durkermaker]

27. a relative told me about one of their relatives who is an air traffic controller at a huge airport

who drives 800 miles to visit relatives

he wont fly.....period

[MorningGlow]

31. Aw, crap

We always fly into John Wayne Airport--every summer--to visit my brother. And it was mentioned twice as one of the worst places to fly into? Just greeaaaaat... x(

[kick-ass-bob]

32. That's OK. I fly into Washington National all the time

since it's on the Metro line.

I love the hard bank right after takeoff and the "slamming on the brakes" when we land :sarcasm:

[pokercat999]

42. I've stood on that Metro platform overlooking the airport.

No guards, no security except for cameras, it would be simple to smuggle a hand held missile onto that platform. The planes can't be but a few hundred yards away, a clear shot. I hate Ray-gun National.

I also love the private parking lot for the SCOTUS, not.

I try to avoid flying, hell my next vacation to CA (I live in VA) I may drive.

[marmar]

35. Try St. Maarten in the Caribbean........

I still break into a sweat thinking about the takeoff and landing.

[WinkyDink]

40. COOL website! Pilots and plumbers and waiters, oh, my!