50 Secrets Your Pilot Won't Tell You

[uva185]

Interesting article from Readers Digest.

http://www.rd.com/home-garden/50-secrets-your-pilot-wont-tell-you/article186583.html

 

[DebbieB]

“There’s no such thing as a water landing. It’s called crashing into the ocean.” -Pilot, South Carolina

Miracle on the Hudson?

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Interesting article from Readers Digest.

http://www.rd.com/home-garden/50-secrets-your-pilot-wont-tell-you/article186583.html

Two quotes that I think hit home here:

“Is traveling with a baby in your lap safe? No. It’s extremely dangerous. If there’s any impact or deceleration, there’s a good chance you’re going to lose hold of your kid, and he becomes a projectile. But the government’s logic is that if we made you buy an expensive seat for your baby, you’d just drive, and you’re more likely to be injured driving than flying.” -Patrick Smith

And although not mentioned specifically, it carries the same weight in terms of what physics are:

“A plane flies into a massive updraft, which you can’t see on the radar at night, and it’s like hitting a giant speed bump at 500 miles an hour. It throws everything up in the air and then down very violently. That’s not the same as turbulence, which bounces everyone around for a while.” -John Nance, aviation safety analyst and retired airline captain, Seattle

 

[ancestry]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[boltfan]

My husband is a small plane pilot and he thought these were hysterical!

 

[bdoyledimou]

Miracle on the Hudson?

It's referred to as a "Miracle" for a reason...

I am not a pilot, but in 2001 i earned 998,000 (give or take a few) air miles, due to weekly flights all over the world. I spent more time in planes that year than in my car. I have had good landings and bad, good flights and bad, and good staff and bad..

But i always respect the folks in the planes. Tough, thankless job, dealing with entitled people every day, who all think the staff are making $100,000k a year...

Never piss off someone who controls your fate

 

[DebbieB]

It's referred to as a "Miracle" for a reason...

He said there's no such thing as a water landing. Sully needs to send him some instructions ....

 

[Baltica]

In case you're interested, one of the pilots quoted in this article - Patrick Smith - has an excellent column in Salon magazine: http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/

 

[goofy4tink]

Technically, there is no such thing as a water landing unless it's a hydroplane. Airliners are not designed to land on water...they land on, well...land. If they 'land' on water, it is not considered a 'water landing'..it is considered to be a crash landing. A controlled crash landing, but still it's a crash.

 

[pilotwife_02]

Technically, there is no such thing as a water landing unless it's a hydroplane. Airliners are designed to land on water...they land on, well...land. If they 'land' on water, it is not considered a 'water landing'..it is considered to be a crash landing. A controlled crash landing, but still it's a crash.

ITA!

Miracle on the Hudson?

Pilots consider a landing to be successful if the airplane can be flown again. THAT airplane certainly won't be flying every again.

I like this one too!! They spend just as much as a lawyer getting an education but certainly don't make what a lawyer will

“I know pilots who spend a quarter million on their education and training, then that first year as a pilot, they qualify for food stamps.”

Funny article and I think I've heard DH say almost all of these things at one time or another.

 

[DebbieB]

All I know is that plane landed on the water and floated long enough for everyone to survive. That is all I am concerned with. I don't think I've heard anyone call it a "crash".

 

[goofy4tink]

All I know is that plane landed on the water and floated long enough for everyone to survive. That is all I am concerned with. I don't think I've heard anyone call it a "crash".

,

I'll bet Sully, his cockpit crew and his FAs, probably do.

 

[uva185]

All I know is that plane landed on the water and floated long enough for everyone to survive. That is all I am concerned with. I don't think I've heard anyone call it a "crash".

If you really want to get technical it is called ditching.

The NTSB defines ditching as "a planned event in which a flight crew knowingly makes a controlled emergency landing in water."

Either way it is very hard to execute a ditching without resulting in a crash which is why Sully (rightfully so) received so much attention.


Glad you all enjoyed the article!