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The Pilot Poser: Silence is Golden.
You’d only know this if you’d been in the cockpit of an airliner. And I have been–for almost 28 years now. Over 21 of those years as captain. Sooner or later, you’ll have to fly with “that pilot:” the...
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Breadcrumbs in the Jetstream.
Used to be that in your first few hours of acrobatic flying that you had to consider how a meal would taste not only going down–but also coming back up later. Never, ever forget or underestimate the...
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Pilot Report: 737-Next Gen Heads Up Display.
First Officers love to derisively grumble about the captain being a HUD cripple–meaning he can’t make a decent landing without the “HUD”–Heads Up Display.” Fine–count me in: I swear by the device. HUDs...
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Airline Pilot Confidential: The Teddy Bear Incident.
It’s the middle day of three back-to-back turns–pace yourself. In fact, it’s the second leg of the middle turn, Dulles International, 7pm–time to get out of town: the elephant walk of international...
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Airline Insider: Bob Crandall on the Airline Industry.
Robert Crandall is the former CEO of AMR and President of American Airlines. He is largely credited with post-deregulation airline innovations such as frequent flyer programs and the hub and spoke...
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How Big is the Sky?
The cockpit is a solemn place in the pregnant pause between preflight and pushback. Always, like a deserted island where everything’s already been said: checklists done, preflight complete, systems...
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Passengers Removed for Non-Compliance: A Pilot’s View.
Kicked off: 100 Jewish students were asked to leave an AirTran flight headed for Atlanta from New York last Monday You probably read the headline, which made the news more because of the students’...
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Motion Lotion: What’s the Commotion?
“The only time you can have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.” –Anonymous Pilot Those are words to live by, in the flying business–but jet fuel is expensive. In fact, it’s just about the largest...
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How do YOU land at San Francisco International Airport?
Here’s how you land at San Francisco International. First, the view over your left shoulder as you cruise “downwind” for your arrival into San Francisco International. You’ve arrived from the Pacific...
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The Epistle oF light.
The Orion Nebula contains a very young open cluster, known as the Trapezium due to the asterism of its primary four stars. Two of these can be resolved into their component binary systems on nights...
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A certain darkness on the flight deck.
Nothing wears a pilot out like watching the other guy fight the jet. And nothing degrades flight performance like the inevitable outcome–the jet wins, as it should. This pointless tail chase arises...
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Count the beads, fly the prayers.
Call me Ishmael, the words tiptoe through your mind, as R-I-A . . . A-N-I-H-C slides by in the plate glass mirror of the terminal ahead. Sit silently, moving eyes only as the Boeing monster ahead...
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The Annual Pilot Beating
Awful House, 4:30 am. Try to decide which is worse–the two roaches scurrying around the condiments, or the lame-brained guy in the paper hat, prattling on about his guts while you try to eat. “You...
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Jet Flight: Elephants, Leggoland and the Paper Swan.
The final moments before flight are an indeterminate gap of time and space left for you to carve out intervals of facts and process; cold, smooth and regular as the steps of a cathedral. It’s a lazy...
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Winter Flight Delays and YOU.
The news media covers the weather-induced flight delays relentlessly from the outside viewpoint, posing as a passenger would, facing headline-grabbing (isn’t that their stock in trade?)...
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Fried Sky with a Side of Regret.
Night falls slowly, painfully on the flight deck westbound. Chasing the sun but losing, sunset grudgingly unfolds in slo-mo, Pat Summerall running color commentary: “Oh my, that’s not how it’s...
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Flying Then As Now
Aw, hell, it’s a beautiful day; so why not go down onto the flight line instead of just right into the cockpit for a change? Bright sky, gleaming jets, the sun climbing its early arc from a not too...
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Flight Crew Like You: The Airline Cartoon Book Now Available
Finally, collected and published, the JetHead firsthand cartoon view of air travel, airlines and flight crews: Here’s the insider, behind-the-scenes look at the world of airlines, air travel and flight...
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Air Travel: 3 Simple Ways to Make Your Summer Flights Easy
Summer time air travel can be stressful, but there are practical and simple things you can do to make your trip easier. Here are my top 3 simple ways to make your summer air travel as efficient and...
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Airliners & Missile Defense: A Pilot’s View.
US Army “Spyder” missile launch. After an apparent missile strike brought down Malaysia Air flight 17 over the Ukraine with senseless, tragic loss of life, public focus has included possible...
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