Flying Commercial

Jaybird180

Jaybird180

Final Approach
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Jaybird180
I'm flying commercial today B757-200 and then A319 for my return trip. Anyone else get the willies when someone else is at the helm?

Intellectually I'm comforted by knowing they are more experienced and knowledgeable than I, and that it is not they who determines my fate.

Oh how I cannot return to a state of pretending that I do not know that which I now know.
 
I don't generally get the willies when flying with the majors, but when I'm in an RJ or turbo-prop with some 20 something kid who looks like Napoleon Dynamite in either front seat...I am VERY concerned.
 
Jaybird180 said:
Anyone else get the willies when someone else is at the helm?
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No, but not because I don't think they won't make any mistakes. I just figure the mistakes won't be big enough to cause us to go down in flames and the odds are in my favor. Actually it's relaxing not to have any of the responsibility and I doze off. I'm not that much of a control freak, though.
 
Not concerned in the slightest. Being concerned about something over which you have no control is simply unnecessary stress. You buy the ticket and that's that. No other transportation system in the history of mankind has a better safety record.
 
I don't like flying commercial at all. Hope my last flight (in July will be the last time). My biggest problems was the delays in the flights. Between power failures at the beginning to having the doo-hickey that weighs the plane and contents fail on startup (which made us all depart the plane - then they had to find us another plane fortunately we were at ORD and American Airlines had another one to bring over)....From the time I left the originating airport to my final destination (8 hours) I could've flown the little 172. Coming back home wasn't better since the plane I was to get on in ORD broke down before it got there. Commercial airliners have people right where they want them...we're at their mercy once we buy the ticket.
 
The flying commercial doesn't really bother me, but the hassle factor is more than I want to put up with. If I never get on another commercial plane, that would be just fine with me.
 
I will drive, if possible, before flying commercialy now due to the hassle involved before you board the plane.

As far as being a passenger for some reason it feels weird not being able to look forward while flying.
 
Two weeks ago, I took a trip by airlines for the first time in nine years. It didn't give me the willies because I know how much better the airlines' safety record is than GA's. The flight was made necessary when I tried to take a trip to Minnesota in a rented 172, and nearly got stranded in the middle of nowhere due to mechanical difficulties. That further increased my confidence during the airline flights, because the whole experience emphasized what a tremendous advantage airline pilots have in getting to fly well-maintained equipment!

I was more worried about being hassled by the TSA, due to all the horror stories that have been posted, but I neither saw nor experienced any problems in that regard.
 
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No I'm not concerned. I grew up with an airline pilot father (Pan Am and then Delta), so I've been flying internationally since childhood. I really doubt I'll ever fly myself to Europe, so commercial it must be.

I've come to loathe the TSA. I've been groped and fondled too many times now.
 
bluee said:
No I'm not concerned. I grew up with an airline pilot father (Pan Am and then Delta), so I've been flying internationally since childhood. I really doubt I'll ever fly myself to Europe, so commercial it must be.

I've come to loathe the TSA. I've been groped and fondled too many times now.
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Point 1 - I just bought tickets for the ride to Manchester, UK for meetings in September. A Cessna 182 just isn't going to do it for a trip like that.

Point 2 - TSA should be abolished. The only positive thing for it is that it provides jobs for people McDonalds would reject.
 
Jaybird180 said:
I'm flying commercial today B757-200 and then A319 for my return trip. Anyone else get the willies when someone else is at the helm?
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I'd have more willies on the A319 due to the someTHING in between the someone at the helm and the flight controls. But I don't want to start another argument about that.

The biggest pain with flying commercial is the TSA and all the other crap you have to deal with. In comparison, the flight itself is relaxing and fun. But given the choice, I'll take GA every time... And generally I can beat the airlines door-to-door almost anywhere in the ConUS east of the Rockies.
 
Ghery said:
Point 1 - I just bought tickets for the ride to Manchester, UK for meetings in September. A Cessna 182 just isn't going to do it for a trip like that.

Point 2 - TSA should be abolished. The only positive thing for it is that it provides jobs for people McDonalds would reject.
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Some info.
http://xpda.com/flyingtoeurope/

I want to go flying in Iceland, but I think I'll fly there commercially first.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
And generally I can beat the airlines door-to-door almost anywhere in the ConUS east of the Rockies.
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Even west of the rockies you can beat airlines door to door in many cases.

It is the coast-coast where the airlines become a bit more efficient from a time standpoint.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
The biggest pain with flying commercial is the TSA and all the other crap you have to deal with. In comparison, the flight itself is relaxing and fun. But given the choice, I'll take GA every time... And generally I can beat the airlines door-to-door almost anywhere in the ConUS east of the Rockies.
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Well, if you lived near a big city w/a hub airport... :D

Given that I live in/near 3 major hub airports (IAD/UA & B6, DCA/US & AA & DL, BWI/WN) most places >750 miles are faster via commercial, 500-750 is a toss-up, and <500 faster by GA. With multiple stops, GA wins hands down. I do really prefer GA every chance I can, but gotta weigh that against airline non-stops.

Once you get on the plane & off the ground, it is generally relaxing as long as you're not stuffed in like sardines with delays. Ground waits can be miserable, and irops can be miserable. Friend of mine just got back from Boston - 24 hours late - because of bad weather yesterday & a mechanical on the new flight this morning. She gave up and took Amtrak's Acela.

As for TSA, someone I know actually heard a TSA screener calling out for a "Male Grope" at ATL this morning. Finally: the truth comes out. :mad2:
 
Everskyward said:
No, but not because I don't think they won't make any mistakes. I just figure the mistakes won't be big enough to cause us to go down in flames and the odds are in my favor. Actually it's relaxing not to have any of the responsibility and I doze off. I'm not that much of a control freak, though.
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+1 ...
 
Fearless Tower said:
Even west of the rockies you can beat airlines door to door in many cases.

It is the coast-coast where the airlines become a bit more efficient from a time standpoint.
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Yeah, I'm in WI and the fastest airplane I currently have access to goes 140 KTAS, so west coast (from WI) isn't going to be faster than the airlines in most cases.

I recently flew a round trip MKE-SEA on AirTran, and both airline airports were actually relatively convenient to where I was going - No way I would have even come close on that one. Sigh. :frown2: Direct flight between two reasonably-sized airports (as opposed to the oversized ridiculously busy ones like ORD). I'd have needed at least a 200-knot airplane with 1500-nm legs to even tie that one up time-wise, and in a 200-knot airplane it'd have been VERY expensive.
 
A few days ago I was stuck in SFO waiting for that Brazilian twin to make it back from MRY and shuttle me there... and waiting... and waiting... And I started calculating if it were any faster just to take the Arrow from ABQ. It weren't, even with a monstrous airline delay, no thanks to United. When we finally descended through the marine layer at MRY, I knew that the only chance for me to make it were to dive under the blanket up coast around WVI and scud it south along the coastline, and I would really not want that.
 
As usual, Mari has it spot on.

I don't care getting on the regionals. In fact, I somewhat enjoy it, because those planes are more my type and the sort of thing I'd like to fly. Remember, everyone who's at the front of that 747 used to be flying something smaller. And our own Teller used to be one of those 20-something kids up front of the Beech 1900. I would happily fly with him then and I'd less happily fly with him now that he's flying a catfish. ;)
 
zaitcev said:
A few days ago I was stuck in SFO waiting for that Brazilian twin to make it back from MRY and shuttle me there... and waiting... and waiting... And I started calculating if it were any faster just to take the Arrow from ABQ. It weren't, even with a monstrous airline delay, no thanks to United. When we finally descended through the marine layer at MRY, I knew that the only chance for me to make it were to dive under the blanket up coast around WVI and scud it south along the coastline, and I would really not want that.
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So, when are you starting on the instrument rating? :thumbsup:
 
I flew MSP > DFW roundtrip on business, left MSP Monday morning, departed DFW Wednesday morning.

At the time, Northwest was still around so my corp. travel dept. gave me a choice of NWA or AA. I know DFW is a big hub for AA so I figured.... why not fly AA? They will have the best service on my return flight.... right?

I rode on a MD-80 (SUPER 80!) MSP > DFW

and I rode a 737 DFW > MSP.

The flight departing MSP was fine. Wheels up to wheels down, the flight was actually a little bit early. For some reason though, it took almost an hour for us to get to the gate. Is this typical for DFW?

The flight departing DFW was delayed for 4 fricken hours for some reason and AA didn't have any alternate planes for us for whatever reason... This didn't bother me in the least, since I was traveling on biz. Originally I was supposed to be picked up by my boss and expected to work about a half a day. Now I could tell him my flight was delayed and he could verify it on the website!

So now after staring at the other cattle sitting in the departure lounge for a while, I decided to hop a cab and visit the AA Museum a few miles down the road. :rofl: When I got back to the gate with about 45 mins to spare... the plane was still late for another 1.5 hours. So I didn't get back into the office until Thurs. :rofl:

And... that was the last time I flew commercial. :(
 
Yet.....there have been times with GA due to WX, equipment failure, turbulence, etc etc that I would have been completely content to be crammed into a middle seat drinking a beer oblivious to the perils around me.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
As usual, Mari has it spot on.

I don't care getting on the regionals. In fact, I somewhat enjoy it, because those planes are more my type and the sort of thing I'd like to fly. Remember, everyone who's at the front of that 747 used to be flying something smaller. And our own Teller used to be one of those 20-something kids up front of the Beech 1900. I would happily fly with him then and I'd less happily fly with him now that he's flying a catfish. ;)
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I guess I just have a problem with walking onto an airplane and looking up front at some kid with ankle socks on with his uniform and his feet up on the panel while he's screwing with the FMS.
 
On my outbound leg, the pilot calls to the cabin on "the show" to the port side. COOL! A lightshow!

Hope to beat Irene back home.
 
Jaybird180 said:
Article said 10yr pilot pay is 145k. I didn't realize it was that much.
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I'm kind of curious where they got their data to come up with that figure.

I can see guys with 10 yrs at the majors making ~145, but I suspect they took a narrow category of pilot pay to come up with that figure.
 
You guys can take a look at this site to get a realistic idea of what the pay scales are like.
 
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