Great read: BA 74 pilot muses on flying

[holliscx]

In Flight: En route from London to Tokyo, a pilot’s-eye view of life in the sky

[Daverino]

That transported me. Thank you!

[Dmoeny]

Fantastic

[Mabouya]

Flying can be pretty cool (though some of the flights don't last very long):

[m_b_b]

That was a wonderful read - thanks for sharing.

[holliscx]

Also recommend this ambitious article offering a revealing view into the Google world:

The Great A.I. Awakening

Long as hell, but highly recommend.

[davids]

That was a lovely read, especially as I've spent the afternoon checking in on the track of another flight from Heathrow, this one heading west towards Dulles.

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It's nice to pair the icon on a map with those gracious, grateful thoughts.

[Daverino]

Went ahead and bought his book. Great read so far. Thanks for turning me on to this!

[SteveP]

nice essay.
tks for posting it

[slowSSer]

incredibly well written and easy to get lost in.

thanks for posting!

[rwsaunders]

Thanks for sharing. I always complain like hell about flying until we are airborne, then I'm like a kid on his first flight.

[holliscx]

Also recommend this ambitious article offering a revealing view into the Google world:

The Great A.I. Awakening

Long as hell, but highly recommend.

Anyone read this epic article - thought it was fascinating - a slog, but rewarding read. Just thought I would share the Google Translate story as well as a friend and I were discussing both articles recently.

[SteveP]

Reminiscent of one of saab posts about one of his flights.

" I got into the cockpit and punched Dublin into the on plane destination folder and went back to nap while the plane flew itself as usual. 2 hours later we had landed in dublin, ohio. Oh boy.. they will not take this well at the office. I guess stuff happens but I really need to remember to put in the country code next time. I have to get this plane out of here before the passengers find out the Guinness factory and trinity college are not here..."

[busdriver1959]

Excellent read but one thing jumped out at me. Nautical terms? Port and starboard? The front of the airplane is either the nose or the front of the airplane. The other end is either the tail or the back of the airplane. The left wingtip is the left wingtip. The right wingtip is the right wingtip. Maybe it's a BA thing but nobody around here says port or starboard. We don't fly boats.

[Saab2000]

Excellent read but one thing jumped out at me. Nautical terms? Port and starboard? The front of the airplane is either the nose or the front of the airplane. The other end is either the tail or the back of the airplane. The left wingtip is the left wingtip. The right wingtip is the right wingtip. Maybe it's a BA thing but nobody around here says port or starboard. We don't fly boats.

It's a British thing. When I learned how to fly in Europe it was the time of the JAA and all the manuals were being re-written using British instead of American terms. All the words "Airport" had to be replaced with "Aerodrome".

Once when asked here in the US if I had the field in sight I replied, "Aerodrome is in sight" and the controller came back asking, "Did you just say 'aerodrome'?" "Affirm, Philadelphia Aerodrome is in sight", I replied to which he answered, "Cleared for the visual to Philadelphia Aerodrome, contact tower", barely able to keep from spitting out his coffee he was laughing so hard.

Anyway, it was funny at the time.... I guess you had to be there...!!

[busdriver1959]

It's a British thing. When I learned how to fly in Europe it was the time of the JAA and all the manuals were being re-written using British instead of American terms. All the words "Airport" had to be replaced with "Aerodrome".

Once when asked here in the US if I had the field in sight I replied, "Aerodrome is in sight" and the controller came back asking, "Did you just say 'aerodrome'?" "Affirm, Philadelphia Aerodrome is in sight", I replied to which he answered, "Cleared for the visual to Philadelphia Aerodrome, contact tower", barely able to keep from spitting out his coffee he was laughing so hard.

Anyway, it was funny at the time.... I guess you had to be there...!!

I think my response might be the same if somebody in the cockpit tried to say port or starboard. We would just laugh.
Everything in our cockpit is labeled left or right, radios, start switches doors, etc. Boeing likes to customize cockpits for their customers. Have you jumpseated on BA and, if so, did you notice if things are left and right or port and starboard?

[Saab2000]

Have you jumpseated on BA and, if so, did you notice if things are left and right or port and starboard?

I have not. I do know that most training for large European airlines is of the Ab Initio style and as such, has a far greater use of standardized terms and much less slang or informal language usage. Not that "Left" or "Right" are confusing but whatever they decided on years ago for the European standard is how it's going to be. There were pretty big aviation cultural hurdles I had to figure out coming back to the US after learning how to fly over there and living there so long, even though I grew up in the US.

I still only use the term "Affirm" instead of "Affirmative". It's how they teach it over there. There are other phraseology examples I have kept too just to increase linguistic clarity.

[rwsaunders]

What I really want to know is if you guys are going to watch Lady Gaga's halftime show in the cockpit, because I'm going to watch it in seat 5A of DL #1823. I'd rather you guys fly and I'll relay the score. Btw the way, I'm on the right side (starboard) if you want to wave...headed westbound.

[TTX1]

What I really want to know is if you guys are going to watch Lady Gaga's halftime show in the cockpit, because I'm going to watch it in seat 5A of DL #1823. I'd rather you guys fly and I'll relay the score. Btw the way, I'm on the right side (starboard) if you want to wave...headed westbound.

I was in the air for Superbowls 49 and 50. Another thing that inflight wifi has changed forever... now everyone has an iPad or some other device beaming updates into an otherwise dark cabin...