airline

• March 11, 2010
• 19:00

  Garmin 430 Overview

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I'm training on a new GPS NAVCOM next week. (That is a GPS receiver that has an integrated communications radio and simulates traditional navigation instruments). This one talks to the radio navig
• March 09, 2010
• 19:00

  406 MHz

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  When you get in my airplane, part of your safety briefing includes me telling you where in aircraft the Emergency Locator Transmitter is installed. (It's in the vertical stabilizer, marked on the outs

• March 08, 2010
• 17:13

  It's a boat! It's a plane!? ...

   » ‎ The Wings Stayed On!
  The Russians have come up with some interest
• 0:51

  Online Newark Liberty briefing

   » ‎ The Wings Stayed On!
  
  I think this o

• March 07, 2010
• 19:00

  Tie-Downs

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  When you put cargo in an airplane, it needs to be tied down. Not so much so it doesn't fall over and break, but so that it doesn't move around and kill you, either by falling on you or by shifting the
• March 05, 2010
• 19:00

  Kicking It

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I started this post when I ran into this quotation. "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
  — Bruce Lee Commen

• 4:18

  Two Letters

   » ‎ Blogging at FL250
  [address redacted]
  
  5 March 2010
  
  The Honorable Al Franken
  320 Hart Senate Office Building
  United States Senate
  Washington, DC 20510
  
  Dear Senator Franken:

• March 03, 2010
• 19:00

  Ominous Signs

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I probably blogged about this the first time I installed iTunes, but it makes me laugh every single time I see it. THE APPLE SOFTWARE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES,
• March 01, 2010
• 19:00

  Runway 88

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Recently I learned an air traffic control code that hadn't known before. I saw some movement statistics for an airport that included the column "Runway 88." This looks as odd to a pilot as a reference
• February 27, 2010
• 19:00

  Go Hockey Men!

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Sorry, no blog today. I'm busy watching the Olympics. For the hockey men, I predict Gold: USA, Silver: Canada, Bronze: Slovakia. I'm just watching the hockey women accept their medals. I hope Canada'

• February 26, 2010
• 17:13

  Flying Cheap

   » ‎ The Wings Stayed On!
  Has everyone seen this documentary following the accident report from Colgan Air 3407?
  
• February 25, 2010
• 19:00

  General Aviation Woes

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  General aviation hassles. This time it's not security regulations, airspace restrictions, or exorbitant airport fees. It's just small town council that d
• February 23, 2010
• 19:00

  One-Way Lungs

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Once upon a time at a job interview I was asked "What is the difference between a turbine engine and a piston engine?" This was before I understood that a question like that really means, "Demonstrat
• February 21, 2010
• 19:00

  Spectre of a Nemesis

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  My PPC renewal is due in a few months, but others in the company are due earlier and the chief pilot wants train everyone up at once and then all go together to somewhere we can book an examiner and d
• February 19, 2010
• 19:00

  He Already Has a Clipboard

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  A friend of mine watching videos (like the one below) at Know Your Meme was entranced not so much by the pseudo-scientific approach to pop culture, but by the fac
• February 17, 2010
• 19:00

  Professionalism

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Professionalism is two things. Firstly it is always doing your utmost to ensure a safe, legal, efficient flight that meets the needs and expectations of your customers. In the case of passengers that

• February 16, 2010
• 1:53

  Deep South

   » ‎ Blogging at FL250
  "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, where the local time is 9:07AM and the temperature is 31 degrees Fahrenheit...."
  
  I was already wearing long underwear, a thick s

• February 15, 2010
• 19:00

  Someone is Terrified of This

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Continuing the topic of being proactive about telling aircraft passengers what to expect, a South African airline called Kulula Air has
• 14:32

  Walmartization of the airline industry

   » ‎ The Wings Stayed On!
  I've been meaning to rent this video. Now that I've seen this clip I must really get on that. A true representation of an industry in trouble:

• February 13, 2010
• 19:00

  Left Out of the Love

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  In a combined effort with other aviation bloggers, I promised a post that ties in with the holiday some people will be celebrating today. Not the New Year's celebration, but the other holiday. The one
• February 11, 2010
• 19:00

  Flimsy?

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  While looking for something else on Google I came across this question from a nervous private pilot student e
• February 09, 2010
• 19:00

  Even Han Solo and Chewie ...

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I'm watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and his guest is Atul Gawande, author of The Checklist Manifesto. I've blogged about him before
• February 07, 2010
• 19:00

  My Flight Sim Setup

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Some of you asked about my flight simulator set up, so here's a geek post on the details. The computer is a Toshiba laptop with dual Pentiums at 2.16 GHz and 2 GB of RAM running Vista. I only have the
• 19:00

  LOST

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  That's me: lost in watching TV and not blogging. Aren't television series box sets awesome? I started with Firefly, and that was so much fun I picked up the next box. A few years ago I bought
• February 05, 2010
• 19:00

  American Hospitality

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Here's the loose end I mentioned earlier. As you may recall, I was almost en route to West Virginia last month, but diverted home at the last moment. To facilitate that trip, I had ordered charts from
• February 04, 2010
• 19:00

  Simple is Good

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Every once in a while I will describe a system, such as the oil pressure line running directly to a dashboard gauge, and someone will be aghast that "that's all it is?" Yes. And the less 'middle manag
• February 02, 2010
• 19:00

  Another Nightmare

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  When I'm in a hotel I take care to plug any chargers into visible outlets, and put a post-it note on the desk reminding me they are there, so I don't abandon chargers and batteries all over North Amer

• 8:29

  End of the Line

   » ‎ Blogging at FL250
  For the second time in ten years, I was present to witness the death of a storied old name in aviation. On January 31, Northwest Airlines - the airline I referred to here as "RedCo" - ceased to exist

• February 01, 2010
• 19:00

  Simulator Oddities

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Oops, forgot to mark this ready after my sim yesterday. First, an apology for all the toy flight simulator entries on here lately, and a warning that they will continue. I don't want to turn t
• January 31, 2010
• 19:00

  Responsibility Never Sleeps

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  As long-time readers know, I have kept my flight instructor rating current so as to have an additional source of income when I'm not off in the wild beyond. So here I am, the week before Christmas, ba
• January 30, 2010
• 19:00

  When Line Pilots Get Bored

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I'm back at home and it's almost Christmas. In a burst of holiday spirit I drive into the city for shopping. This includes a stop at a Canadian Tire -- Canadian Tire ought to have its own blog categor
• January 29, 2010
• 19:00

  Ess Eye Dee?

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I'm being a good pilot and reviewing my regulations by reading the online AIM. I'm in the Rules of the Air section, for some reason this is abbreviated RAC. Back when the AIM (Airman's Information Man
• January 28, 2010
• 19:00

  Haven't Done My Sim Yet

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Seeing as Sarah busted me yesterday for breaking my New Year's resolution, today's blog post is postponed until I fulfill it. Also my hands are too cold to type properly, because I just got in from a
• January 27, 2010
• 19:00

  Cold and Macho

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  We meet at 6:30 for breakfast according to our strategy. The rental car can be returned at 7:00, and we've left ourselves a few hours leeway for contingencies so we can still get the airplane put away
• January 26, 2010
• 19:00

  Done Like Dinner

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  The customers have emerged from their conference call and the verdict is that they are done with us. They pack up and drive away, before any more snow arrives and they get stuck up here. It's now up t
• 19:00

  Done Like Dinner

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  The customers have emerged from their conference call and the verdict is that they are done with us. They pack up and drive away, before any more snow arrives and they get stuck up here. It's now up t
• January 25, 2010
• 19:00

  When Check Pilots Get Bored

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Some weird aviation stories have been coming out of India lately. Six years ago if you had a commercial licence and the right to work in India, you had a jet job. Airlines were expanding so quickly th
• January 24, 2010
• 19:00

  But the End of the Assignment

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  There's more work to be done here but it snowed again and the temperature keeps dropping, so the customers can't pretend that the snow is going to melt. They need less than ten centimetres of snow on
• January 23, 2010
• 19:00

  Not the End of the World

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Did I get to the part where we fly the airplane yet? Seriously, did I? We did fly the airplane this rotation. Twice, even. And if you think the blog took a long time getting there, try real life. J
• January 22, 2010
• 19:00

  Uncanny Valley of Fiction?

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  This silly piece of fiction about Airline Pilots Behaving Badly showed up in a Google alert. I read it without context, at first thinking its
• January 21, 2010
• 19:00

  Hotel Hallway Guarantee

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I get up and do my 5BX exercises, still really simple to do in half the allotted time, but they say not to skip any levels. Then I have paperwork to do. Naturally I left some of the information I nee

• 4:20

  The Fed

   » ‎ Blogging at FL250
  I first noticed him as I strolled up to our gate in Pittsburgh at 5:30am, bags in tow. He was wearing black polyester pants, a leather jacket with epaulet loops, and a plastic ID card on a lanyard; I

• January 20, 2010
• 19:00

  Maybe It's In CAR Subpart 666

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I wish I had a navigational record of how mealtime conversation got there, but there it was. Somehow it became sufficiently relevant to the conversation that a member of our party chose to mention, in
• January 19, 2010
• 19:00

  Not Enraptured by the Weather

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I wake up and look at the graphical weather forecast and see that the weather gods have pulled a switcheroo. The high we've been tracking has pushed south and the weather we're getting instead is a lo

• January 18, 2010
• 19:49

  Data Raped?

   » ‎ The Wings Stayed On!
  In light of recent airline security issues the question of who knows what about us is of interest. What do we gain by giving up so much privacy?
  
• 19:00

  Sky Mom

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I received e-mail last week from Danielle Gibeault, a Wisconsin-based flight instructor looking for some blog love. I get a lot of requests to be listed on this blog, and although I read many interest
• January 17, 2010
• 19:00

  Five Basic Exercises

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  I think it was a reader here who pointed me at 5BX, a set of exercises developed in the 1950s to keep Royal Canadian Air Force pilots fit even wh
• January 16, 2010
• 19:00

  Cheapest Airplane Fix Ever

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  Last week I blogged about a mystery item handed over to me at crew change and challenged you to tell me why my chief pilot purchased these. If I have opportunity to, I will edit this paragraph to mock
• January 15, 2010
• 19:00

  Another Down Day

   » ‎ Cockpit Conversation
  The weather is still not cooperating, but the high is moving very slowly towards us. Closer is good, and slow is good, I reason, because the slower it comes the slower it will leave. We'll use our new

• 13:39

  Keeping us safe!

   » ‎ The Wings Stayed On!
  A reader supplied the link to this security related video. I think it's worth viewing before the Vancouver Olympics.