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There are a lot of dumbass pilots still flying around alive, and there are a lot of good pilots who are dead. The statistics include everyone and the average pilot is 1:100,000 hours. If you're a dumbass its lower, if you are actually safer its higher. But there is no metric or quantitative measurement for how safe you are...
Oct 17, 2011 · The FAA concluded, in 2009, that maximum age of Airline Transport Pilots would be raised from 60 to 65. There was a time when 60, 70, or 80 was old, but for many people, that is not the case any more, and older general aviation pilots are recognized as an example for younger pilots. Older flyers usually have a serious interest in being able to ...
- Bob Claypool
- “Let’s Kick The Tires and Light The Fires”
- “Feet Wet”
- “We’ve Got A Deadhead Crew Flying to Chicago”
- “There’s A Pilot in The Jumpseat”
- “It’s 17:00 Zulu Time”
- “George Is Flying The Plane Now”
- “We’re Flying Through An Air Pocket”
- “Tree,” “Fife” and “Niner”
- “Pass The Crew Juice”
- “Pan-Pan”
Famously uttered by Harry Connick Jr. in Independence Day, the military phrase signals that a plane is just about ready for takeoff, says Mark Baker, a commercial pilot of 35 years and current president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). Once the crew completes the pre-flight gear inspection, it’s time to ignite the engine and ta...
This phrase alerts air traffic controllers when a military aircraft, (usually a Navy carrier pilot), is flying over water, says Tom Haines, a private pilot and editor-in-chief of AOPA’s Pilot magazine. In the event that the aircraft encounters an emergency above water, like trouble in a combat zone, the controllers can deploy the proper rescue vess...
Despite how it may sound, this isn’t an insult: Off-duty pilots or flight crew who board a commercial flight as passengers to fly back to the plane’s home base are called “deadheads,” Haines says. “Deadheading” is fairly common: if a flight crew lands in their destination but must depart from a different airport for their next shift, an airline can...
If there aren’t any seats in the passenger cabin available for deadheads, they can claim an extra fold-up seat in the cockpit, known as a “jumpseat.” Most jumpseats are reserved for FAA inspectors or off-duty flight personnel traveling back to their home base, says Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines pilot of 40 years. “You basically beg for a ri...
Since pilotscan pass through multiple time zones in one trip and must communicate with air traffic controllers from around the world, aviators follow “Zulu time,” or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the universal time zone of the skies, Aimer says. GMT is the time kept by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. So if it’s 2 a.m. in London for example...
There’s a “George” on nearly every commercial aircraft, but he’s not a crew member. “George” is a nickname for a plane’s autopilot system that follows a programmed set of points to the flight’s destination, taking into consideration changes in turbulence and altitude, according to Aimer. Pilots often deploy George to command the plane when it reach...
Turbulence-averse flyers, beware: “air pocket” is just another word for the winds that jostle a plane from different directions. Aimer says the term “air pocket” causes less panic than “turbulence” among passengers. “As soon as we say ‘turbulence,’ people get scared,” Aimer says. “We use ‘air pockets’ to calm [passengers] down.” The direction and f...
Aviators often speak “pilot English” to avoid miscommunications over radio transmission. “Tree” for instance, means three, “fife” is the number five and “niner” means nine, says Tom Zecha, a manager at AOPA. The variations stemmed from a desire to avoid confusion between similar-sounding numbers, he says.
After a long day in the sky, crew membersoften need to unwind—sometimes adjusting to a completely new time zone. “Juice” refers to a cocktail that former American Airlines flight attendant and aviation cabin safety expert Kathy Lord-Jones describes as a “mixture of [alcoholic] beverages” left over from a flight. Crew members are prohibited from dri...
Airline passengerslikely won’t ever hear their pilot use this term, which is reserved for communication with air traffic controllers. When pilots notice something unusual with their aircraft that stops short of an immediate emergency, they use “pan-pan,” a signal of urgency and attention, Baker says. If one of a multi-engine aircraft’s engines has ...
- 3 min
- Scottie Andrew
Dec 12, 2021 · Pilot Deaths Now Soaring. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) is reporting a staggering increase in the number of deaths among U.S. and Canadian pilots over the course of 2021. ALPA represents some 61,000 pilots, steering planes at some 38 US and Canadian airlines. The current issue of ALPA’s trade magazine — AIR LINE PILOT –has an ...
- THOROUGH Performing a complete preflight inspection (in and out of the cockpit) and using a checklist are two basic disciplines drilled into us before we set foot in our first airplane.
- CALM, COOL & COLLECTED The first time I took my father for an airplane ride (20-plus years ago, with the ink still wet on my certificate), we were climbing through about 100 feet in a rented Cessna 150 when there was a sudden, loud pop, and a rush of air swirled through the cockpit.
- MODEST Joe, a well-known CFII in Maryland, related a tale of a gentleman who came to his flight school to get “checked out” in a Cessna 172 after having been away from flying for a few years.
- COMPETENT One day last year, an exceptionally enthusiastic pilot who had recently passed his private checkride, approached me with a big grin on his face.
Oct 8, 2015 · The plane is on auto-pilot mode, and it is safe. Monitoring the systems prudently is what the pilots do at those times. So in a rare situation, where if both the pilots fall sick, or in the case of the pilot dying and the co-pilot falling ill; the landing will be made on auto-pilot (under the first officer’s monitoring). 3.
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Pilots who have passed away have "Flown West." Sorry for your loss. This is also a nice saying. Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return. There are several: One is that a pilot has "Gone West".
