Feb 25th, 2010 at 12:00PM: Big Brother may not be watching, but he'll be listening. A new recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board would involve the use of "black box" recordings to monitor the conversations that occur among pilots in the cockpit. This comes on the heels of several high-profile incidents in which pilots were distracted. According to a report by USA Today, this would be the first time that ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
pilots posts
Pilots forced to talk about work in the cockpit
Feb 25th, 2010 at 12:00PM: Big Brother may not be watching, but he'll be listening. A new recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board would involve the use of "black box" recordings to monitor the conversations that occur among pilots in the cockpit. This comes on the heels of several high-profile incidents in which pilots were distracted. According to a report by USA Today, this would be the first time that ...Galley Gossip: The Bachelor - airline employees, spouses & why Vienna is perfect for Jake
Feb 8th, 2010 at 9:30AM: If you think long distance dating is difficult, try being married to an airline employee. It ain't easy. Because working for an airline is not just a job, it's a lifestyle, a very unusual one. Even now, seven years later, my husband, a man who travels more often than I do, doesn't completely understand how things work in the aviation industry and will often times get frustrated whenever we're ...Galley Gossip: The Bachelor - pilots, fashion & a few pilot fashion tips
Feb 3rd, 2010 at 9:30AM: Women love pilots. What's not to like? Even men have a thing for pilots. Think Brad Pitt. He fell in love with one. The word itself conjures up images of Richard Gere (Officer and a Gentleman), Tom Cruise (Top Gun), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator), Andy Garcia (When a Man Loves a Woman), John Travolta (pilots his own 707), and Jake Pavelka.
Jake Pavelka?
Jake Pavelka. Ya know, The Bachelor ...A TSA simulator courtesy of Playmobil
Dec 15th, 2009 at 5:00PM: I was so excited when I came across this Playmobil Security Check Point on Amazon. As an airline pilot, this is the perfect way to show my two girls, ages 8 and 4, where it is that I work.
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/12/15/a-tsa-simulator-courtesy-of-playmobil/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling';
My daughters have a ton of Playmobil people already, left over from the airplane ...Galley Gossip: 10 gifts for flight attendants (and frequent fliers)
Dec 8th, 2009 at 12:00PM: Dear Santa,
All I want for Christmas is job security, being able to hold my first bid, two weeks vacation, a raise, longer layovers, more wide-body flying, faster flying times, grateful and polite passengers with a sense of humor, more ferry flights, a cockpit that appreciates who's on the other side of the reinforced door, and a fun crew
Florence, the flight attendant
Something tells me ...Only approved electronic devices allowed in the cockpit?
Nov 22nd, 2009 at 8:00AM: Maybe the flight attendants should start talking to the cockpit, too. When a plane overshot Minneapolis last month because the crew was playing around with personal laptops, national attention turned to what actually goes on in the front of the plane. Congress is kicking around the idea of a new bill that would kick personal electronic devices from the cockpit.
Unsurprisingly, the pilots and ...Greyhound bus driver heads wrong way: Where's a GPS when you need one?
Nov 6th, 2009 at 2:30PM: tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/11/06/greyhound-bus-driver-heads-wrong-way-wheres-a-gps-when-you-nee/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling';
Greyhound bus drivers generally don't make national news. Pilots who overshoot airports, however, end up having their story told over and over again on about every entertainment vehicle there is. How many places did you hear or read about the ...Gadlinks for Wednesday 11.4.09
Nov 4th, 2009 at 5:00PM:
This is the best day of the week, in my opinion: You're in a midweek groove, but the weekend is in sight. That's a perfect metaphor for how I'm feeling this week in life, too. I'm past the midpoint of many things in life, but the end is nigh! We have a whole lot of great travel reads to be thankful for as well, so let's get started.
This astute article details the dark side of adventure ...Galley Gossip: A memorable flight for a first time flier
Oct 29th, 2009 at 9:30AM: I knew something was up when an attractive woman wearing a fur vest walked to the back of the airplane during boarding and pulled my coworker aside on a flight from Dallas to New York. I couldn't really make out what they were saying as I set up the galley, shoving snacks in a drawer and stacking cups in an insert, but it had something to do with a kid who had spent his entire summer babysitting ...Ten pilots you DON'T want in your cockpit.
Oct 28th, 2009 at 12:30PM:
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/10/28/ten-pilots-you-dont-want-in-your-cockpit/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling';
When it comes to making fun of airline employees, pilots are usually off limits. Screw with a flight attendant, and you may not get your drink, screw with the TSA, and you may end up missing your flight. But screwing around with a pilot just doesn't feel right. In ...Northwest pilots fly plane miles past airport where plane was supposed to land
Oct 23rd, 2009 at 2:30PM: Missing a highway exit, thus driving well past it and needing to turn around may be common, particularly if a driver is feeling spaced out and road hashed. Missing an airport, thus flying past it, is unusual. Even so, it happened this past Wednesday. A Northwest Airlines Airbus A320 overshot Minneapolis where it was heading.
Luckily, the plane only went 150 miles further before the pilots ...Plane Answers: Is there a pilot shortage coming?
Oct 19th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Welcome to Gadling's feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away! Justin asks: I have seen advertisements lately that have been saying that there will be a large number of airline pilots retiring in the next few years and that the demand for new pilots will ...Cockpit Chronicles: "Flying Drunk" by Joe Balzer
Oct 16th, 2009 at 3:30PM: Most people would question their career choice after working for five different airlines in their first six years as a pilot. But the early '90s were a turbulent time in the industry, and I was simply happy to be working, even if it was as a flight engineer on the 727. Flying is what I wanted to do. But a flight engineer doesn't actually fly. This position, once reserved for experienced mechanics, ...Galley Gossip: Nonreving - a new web site for airline employees (and retirees)
Aug 6th, 2009 at 10:30AM: Dear Heather
came across your blog recently and I wanted to introduce you to our web site www.NonRevCheckin.com just in case you were not aware of it already. Our web site is really the first of its kind allowing Non Rev travelers to see flight schedules and more importantly, flight loads on over 130 airlines around the world. We obtain data from Sabre® global distribution system; interpret ...Galley Gossip: A question about dating pilots - gay pilots.
Jun 15th, 2009 at 9:30AM:
Dear Heather,
I flew a MIA-JFK yesterday and thought of you. These were the highlights...
Family of 6 in first class made the purser cry
Customer service agent boarded the plane to calm passengers down which caused a late push back
Lady got dizzy and needed oxygen in economy
Lady ran from economy to first class lavatory seconds before take-off
We missed our roll
No ...Continental pilot pension scam, nine disappointed pilots
May 24th, 2009 at 12:00PM: Continental Airlines is looking to cash in on pilots who cashed in on a divorce scam. The pilots used sham divorces to divert more than $10 million to their ex-spouses. Post-divorce, the exes cashed in on retirement benefits, and the fliers could stay in the sky – and keep earning.
It's really pretty simple. A couple divorces. The pilot assigns all pension benefits to the ex-spouse. Then, ...Gadling gets an exclusive look at Virgin America's cockpit technology
May 6th, 2009 at 9:00AM: While there have been many reports and videos highlighting the inflight entertainment provided by Virgin America, Gadling thought it would be interesting to find out what kind of technology was available to the pilots and flight attendants at Virgin America. Take a look as pilots Gabe and Eddie and flight attendant Rebecca give Gadling a look at some of the gadgets available to them on board ...Plane Answers: Cockpit jumpseat etiquette and inefficient arrivals
Apr 27th, 2009 at 2:00PM: Welcome to Gadling's feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away! David asks: Hi Kent, While riding in the jump seat do you ever double check what the PIC and SIC are doing? Have you ever seen something that you would have done differently and pointed it out? ...Pakistani pilots to speed up
Apr 25th, 2009 at 4:00PM: Late last week, Pakistan International Airlines' pilots agreed to bring their slowdown protest to a conclusion. The pilots were upset over compensation, and their fight-back-by-decelerating strategy caused the airline to cancel flights. Sixteen international flights and another 11 within Pakistan never left the ground as a result of the slow-motion show of defiance.
Negotiations have finally paid ...Six weird plane emergency landing stories
Apr 24th, 2009 at 2:30PM: One couldn't argue that the US Airways emergency crash landing on the Hudson River due to birds flying into the engines is probably one of the most spectacular emergency landing stories.
There are, however, other stories that give one pause. They are not as splashy, but they sure are interesting, odd, and even downright weird. I went on an emergency landing hunt and this is what I found so ...
