August 12, 2019 • 15 mins
Jodi sat with a pilot on a recent flight - and learned LOTS of flying secrets! 👨✈️🛩👩
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Murphy, Sam and Jody after the show, and Jody
spent some time over the weekend learning all the secrets
apparently a flying from a pilot that she sat next to.
But you weren't in the cockpit. You were next to
a pilot who was traveling.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
But I don't think I ever want to be in
the cockpit now when I get on a plane, I
always look into the cockpit to see, Hey, what's up,
who's there?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Everybody's awake?
Speaker 4 (00:19):
You know, I would love to fly in a cockpit.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I don't think I would set.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
The whole thing back in the in the day before
nine to eleven, remember, I mean, the curtains would stay
open a lot of a lot of cases, you can,
can you remember that, Yeah, before they had to start
locking the doors. The way that they did, You know
that was that was actually kind of a cool park.
It's a shame you can't enjoy that anymore. Where the
pilot would sometimes invite kids to come up and see.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
And anybody want to drink.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'll learn some really cool stuff. Okay, So I sat
down next to this man. He was dressed in regular clothing.
He wasn't dressed like a pilot. I kind of wish
he was.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
But anyway, we're I don't remember how I knew.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I don't remember how the conversation he started, but he
was very conversational, and so we started talking. He's a
pilot for this particular airline and he had been. We
were traveling through Atlanta, and he was he worked for Delta,
and he was he's been a pilot for them for
many years and before that in the Air Force, and
(01:21):
so that's where.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
A lot of pilots, you know, commercial airline pilots come
from there.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
That's what one thing I learned.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
He was like, don't think that somebody who just decides
one day they want to be a pilot get to
go do this training like they were training somewhere north
of the airport is where their training program is there.
And he said, no, every pilot, any pilot who was
in that cockpit on a commercial airline, has been flying
for a very long time. There's nobody who decides to
(01:46):
do this and six months later they're flying you. However,
he does say, the first time you fly a jet
for Delta, you're flying a full of people. Everything else
is simulators. They don't let you fly it empty. And
that makes sense, but there's always like.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
For what he's going to you also have a co
pilot with you, somebody.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Right does have experience. I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
He told he's so passionate about flying that he told
me so much. I can't remember it all. You'll have
to start asking me questions to let you know what
I remember what you know, pull it out of me.
But he has been flying for them for a really
long time domestically, and he's decided in his career he
wants to fly some different planes and some bigger planes,
and so he's going to start doing international flights. And
(02:29):
it's interesting because he has a family, beautiful to a
family of they have four children, and he was showing
me that, you know, the kids and all this, and
I'm like, so, how is this going to be for
your family with you being gone so much?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Like?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And it works.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Actually, he's going to be home for fourteen days a
month and gone for you know, fourteen something like that,
So actually really really works.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, I think that I don't remember what kind of
shifts that they fly in. I know there's a maximum
amount of time that they can be on duty.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
He told me.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I'm sure, but but yeah, it's an on off situation,
so that they.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Completely and he said that it's not like you know,
it takes him days to decompress when he gets home.
When he gets home, he gives his family his full attention,
which is great because he likes to be able to
step in for his wife and help her and be
there and really be in it. So it really works
for his life. And so anyway, he said.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
You know, I've learned. I didn't know this either.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
If you're a pilot for this airline anyway, you fly
certain jets, you train to fly only certain jets. He's like,
we were on a regional and he's like, this is
a regional jet. So you know, these guys fly regional jets.
They couldn't fly the jets that I'm training to. And
he didn't say that boastfully.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
You know they couldn't.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Isn't that interesting?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, you know, I thought, hey, you're a pilot, you
can fly anything for that airline.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Not true. Yeah, they're specific to what you're flying.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Well, I mean, there's a lot more going on on
those really big jets. That's why the entire staff is bigger.
That's on them, light attendants and everything. And actually I
think you have. I mean, on international flights, you don't
just have a pilot, and the copilotlots pilots.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yes, And he said that gives you a chance. It
gives you a chance to take a rest and sleep.
He explained that to me too. That's why it is,
you know, it's all. It's all so well thought out.
I left there feeling better about all of it. You
know me, I don't love to fly, but I'm so
much better than I used to be twenty years ago.
I really am. I can I can tune out even
during turbulence. If I'm reading a good book, I can
(04:22):
tune it out. I used to do like this.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well you can go there. I grabbed the seat. You
just don't claw into my arm anymore the way you
used to all.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I'm really sorry.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
But did he say if they fly mostly on autopilot
or they fly.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I didn't ask that question. See, you guys would have
had so much more fun sitting next to him than me.
But it was interesting to learn about. Like of course,
we were ten minutes into a conversation, and you know,
I asked him about turbulence, and you know, he explained
to me that when they know they see it and
they're going to be going through it. Of course, they
let you know. They don't want passengers to be surprised.
(04:58):
And he said, if you think about the way to design,
you guys would have loved him. You think about the
way it's designed, it's the wings that are doing that.
You know he was giving me.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'm surprised.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He just gave me examples of why the plane is
doing that. What it's doing, it makes sense, so he
physically explained that to me. He also said, if you'll
notice anytime you're going through turbulence, as soon as you
hit the turbulence, the plane is going to slow down
a little bit. And I said, I've never noticed that,
And sure enough, in a little while we went through something.
Because you feel that he just slowed down as he
(05:27):
should have so that you feel it less. Yeah, I'm like, law,
it was fabulous to sit next to him, but he
ended up like I thought it was over. I'm like, oh,
you answer my questions about turbulence. Great, let me get
back to my book. And he just kept on talking
because he's so I would have said him. We talked about,
you know, the weather information that they have, so even
if they do divert and fly a different route because
(05:51):
they're they're doing that for your comfort, so that they
take you out of as much of turbulence as possible.
He also said that he feels the most in the
airline industry. He feels the most for the gate agents
and the flight attendants. Yeah, because he said, like, look
what I'm going to be flying international flights. I'm in
the cockpit, you know, and i know my responsibility is great,
(06:14):
but I'm not dealing with someone who's upset, who's scared,
who's mad, who's been detoured and you know, re routed.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Yeah, they're the first line of customer service.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, And he said mostly for the flight attendants because
they also what they end up doing ninety nine percent
of their time is serving you and dealing you know,
with your what whatever your needs are. But they have
to train for the emergency situations and if they're if
you're in an emergency situation, they're the ones that are
on the ground in it. So he said for him
(06:44):
that he thinks that's one of the toughest jobs. Even
a gate agent can get away from a situation, but
attendance flight attendants cannot because they're on the plane does he.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Say that they are they have any training for humor too,
because you know how sometimes you get the pilots or
the flight attendants that I did.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I did ask him.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I said, well, I didn't say humor, but I said,
are you giving direction about what to say what not
to say? He goes, absolutely, You're supposed to remain comps
if you get that super calm dude. I'm like, yes,
every pilot I've ever heard is like.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Good evening labies and gentlemen. Yeah, experience.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
He just said that.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, I think a pilot with good customer service. Going
back to what you were saying a minute ago, is
you know, they're they're very descriptive about the flight, the time,
what to expect, and and then the you know, the
welcome not just the welcome aboard, but if there's anything
that you need. I mean, I've had some great pilots
that have done that, you know before. But you know,
(07:38):
and Sam your question about takeoff and landing for autopilot,
I had a pilot tell me one time that the
landings and the takeoffs are typically done manually. The plane
is capable of doing it automatically or you know, with
whatever autopilot. But it's done manually, and the in flight
stuff is done on autopilot until they have to start to,
(07:58):
you know, fly around bad weather and that sort of guy.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I did ask him, I probably it's like this, like
he was sitting next to a fifth grade or something,
because I like, so, what's more difficult taking off or landing?
And I was assuming landing and he said landing. You know,
landing was harder. That makes sense because trying.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
To make that, you know, a soft landing. I mean,
you know how many flights have we been on where
it's bounced a little when.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
It's landed, and bounce kills me.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, And sometimes they can't help that when they're flying
into a wind, a crosswind where they're trying to manage
the plane and keep it straight. It's it's not as
easy as you think. There's no reason to get mad
at the pilot for that. He's probably doing his best, right,
I know, I mean, are most of these guys are
guys that have flown on air aircraft carriers before they
know how to cut a plane down on a dot.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I won't get into detail because he didn't get into detail.
But when he was in the Air Force, he was
in Afghanistan and Iraq. Okay, so he has he has
done some stuff in the air in airplanes, so that.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
He probably doesn't have to do in a commercial place now.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
But it was just really interesting actually to hear him
talk about his airline and the industry. I just well,
I left their feeling. I walked away from that feeling like,
you know, we as the customer. I remember, you know,
when we've had difficulties traveling, when we three go go
somewhere together and we're connecting, and I remember thinking, man,
(09:19):
if the airlines really have you, they can mess up
your whole trip, but they don't want to mess up
a thing. And he really explained that to me. They
think about every possible thing, but they don't want you
to miss your connections. Of course, not they know you
have other airline choices. Of course they don't, but they
number one want you to have a good flight experience.
So if it takes them longer to go around turbulence
(09:41):
for you not to have turbulence, They're going to go
a little longer. You know that they understand that. I
just went away feeling like, well, there's a lot more
thought put into all of this than it would seem.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Really you never you never felt that way before.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I don't know, I never thought about it before.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I guess I have flown so much over the years
ever since I as a kid, that it's it has
changed a lot. They've always been customer friendly, but it's
the technology that's changed everything. The radars on the ground
are the reason that they can fly around and well,
and the way the planes are equipped with the radars,
or the reason that they can fly around bad weather
and look. As recently as the nineteen eighties, there were
(10:18):
things about weather patterns that they did not understand. You
could get on some pretty bumpy flights. That's why they
started putting certain types of Doppler radars around airports in
the nineteen eighties to for like downdrafts and those kind
of things that weren't just bouncy but dangerous.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, and so I mean to me, the fact that
you can track your baggage on your smartphone, do anything
that you need to on your smartphone, track to flight.
It's crazy, all that all that communication. Now it's the
best time ever to fly, fly, you know, And I mean, yeah,
I still can't believe as a kid people smoked on
the plane had that. They actually had a smoking section.
(10:56):
I'm like, it's one tube, how do you how are
you going to.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
We're in the non smoking set, right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But to think that that was even ever a thing
before it was outlawed, it's kind of weird.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Did you ask him is it really necessary to turn
your phone off?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I thought about it. I thought about it, but I
didn't want to.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
There was so much other conversation going I did not
think to ask that, But then that what's he going
to tell me? No, it's not exactly No, I'm sure
he knew. He knew who I was, he knew there
was a possibility that I'd be talking about this for broadcasts,
for podcasting.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And I don't think he was going to tell me
anything in the d L.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
The thing is your cell phone won't work up there anyway,
So the only what happens is your phone is constantly
trying to search for a frequency. And so you have
two hundred people on a plane, you're just creating unnecessary interference.
It's not necessarily going to hurt the plane, but it's unnecessary.
And if you're moving at five hundred miles an hour
and your and your phone happens to grab a cell
tower and then not you can really it can't mess
(12:01):
up the cell providers, you know. So there's a number
of different reasons that you don't turn your phone on.
Nothing's going to be bad if you forget, but you're
probably gonna run your battery down because your phone's gonna
sit there the entire flight trying to find a tower
that it can't find.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
It was an interesting experience.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I mean, it's just how rare, you know, how that
will probably never happen.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Well, somebody who's you know, willing to kind of walk
you through it and pull up his tablet and show
that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I love talking about it. Yeah, I mean you throughout
the weather thing on the tablet.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
My dad would have loved that, because my dad has
been That's the reason that I'm so into it is
because he was an aviation buff. He was going to
go into the Air Force, but because of a medical
condition he couldn't and so he never really it's he
kind of gave up flying after that. He actually was
getting this pilot's license, but then he just kind of
gave up flying after that. But he's always been fascinated
(12:50):
with you know, different types of aircraft as I too,
so I.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Know, we get on a plane. Murphy's always telling me, you know,
this is.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The d D.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Okay, the but I think flight attendants must also have
to have different training for different sized flights. This is
years ago, but I remember it was a flight attendant
I was just talking to and she was sitting back
there with a couple of us.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
What Sam's thinking, How hot was she?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
It was? It wasn't a very full flight, so you know,
I mean she was talking to about six or seven
of us, and and everybody was just asking about, well,
how long have you been doing this? And it was
one of those small regional flights, so it was it
was actually a turbo prop plane. She's a really small plane, right,
And and I asked her, I said, well, so do
you know this is a pretty small aircraft. Do you
(13:38):
ever do you ever fly on the big you know,
the bigger jumbo jets? And she started to tear up
and she said, I don't meet the height requirements. I'm like, oh,
I didn't mean to upset you. I'm very sorry.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
You know you are lying that happen?
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, she started crying. I felt like a complete inn,
you know, well, you didn't know.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
That sounds like something stupid I would walk into.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, it sounds like both of you, you know. And
that's going back to what he said. This pilot and
his first name was Mike. I'm not going to say
his last name, you know, privacy, but his first name
was Mike. But he when he when we talked about
the flight attendants and how he really feels for them.
They have some serious training that you hope they never
have to use, but they have training about how to
(14:20):
exit and get off of the aircraft, you know, if
in the event of emergency. So he's like all mad
respect to them medical emergencies.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I mean, they are all kinds of unexpected.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah, we've seen the movie Airplane. We know it goes on.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
See that's where you guys would have been dorks sitting
next to him, because you he said the word vector
at one point.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
He said something about vector when we.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Were talking about turbulence, and I totally was not about
to call one of your airplane jokes.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
His name was Roger.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
How's the clearance?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Clarence missed any part of the show All at Murphy,
Sam and Jody dot Com
It's Murphy, Sam and Jody after the show, and Jody
spent some time over the weekend learning all the secrets
apparently a flying from a pilot that she sat next to.
But you weren't in the cockpit. You were next to
a pilot who was traveling.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
But I don't think I ever want to be in
the cockpit now when I get on a plane, I
always look into the cockpit to see, Hey, what's up,
who's there?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Everybody's awake?
Speaker 4 (00:19):
You know, I would love to fly in a cockpit.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I don't think I would set.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
The whole thing back in the in the day before
nine to eleven, remember, I mean, the curtains would stay
open a lot of a lot of cases, you can,
can you remember that, Yeah, before they had to start
locking the doors. The way that they did, You know
that was that was actually kind of a cool park.
It's a shame you can't enjoy that anymore. Where the
pilot would sometimes invite kids to come up and see.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
And anybody want to drink.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'll learn some really cool stuff. Okay, So I sat
down next to this man. He was dressed in regular clothing.
He wasn't dressed like a pilot. I kind of wish
he was.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
But anyway, we're I don't remember how I knew.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I don't remember how the conversation he started, but he
was very conversational, and so we started talking. He's a
pilot for this particular airline and he had been. We
were traveling through Atlanta, and he was he worked for Delta,
and he was he's been a pilot for them for
many years and before that in the Air Force, and
(01:21):
so that's where.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
A lot of pilots, you know, commercial airline pilots come
from there.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
That's what one thing I learned.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
He was like, don't think that somebody who just decides
one day they want to be a pilot get to
go do this training like they were training somewhere north
of the airport is where their training program is there.
And he said, no, every pilot, any pilot who was
in that cockpit on a commercial airline, has been flying
for a very long time. There's nobody who decides to
(01:46):
do this and six months later they're flying you. However,
he does say, the first time you fly a jet
for Delta, you're flying a full of people. Everything else
is simulators. They don't let you fly it empty. And
that makes sense, but there's always like.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
For what he's going to you also have a co
pilot with you, somebody.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Right does have experience. I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
He told he's so passionate about flying that he told
me so much. I can't remember it all. You'll have
to start asking me questions to let you know what
I remember what you know, pull it out of me.
But he has been flying for them for a really
long time domestically, and he's decided in his career he
wants to fly some different planes and some bigger planes,
and so he's going to start doing international flights. And
(02:29):
it's interesting because he has a family, beautiful to a
family of they have four children, and he was showing
me that, you know, the kids and all this, and
I'm like, so, how is this going to be for
your family with you being gone so much?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Like?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And it works.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Actually, he's going to be home for fourteen days a
month and gone for you know, fourteen something like that,
So actually really really works.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, I think that I don't remember what kind of
shifts that they fly in. I know there's a maximum
amount of time that they can be on duty.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
He told me.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I'm sure, but but yeah, it's an on off situation,
so that they.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Completely and he said that it's not like you know,
it takes him days to decompress when he gets home.
When he gets home, he gives his family his full attention,
which is great because he likes to be able to
step in for his wife and help her and be
there and really be in it. So it really works
for his life. And so anyway, he said.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
You know, I've learned. I didn't know this either.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
If you're a pilot for this airline anyway, you fly
certain jets, you train to fly only certain jets. He's like,
we were on a regional and he's like, this is
a regional jet. So you know, these guys fly regional jets.
They couldn't fly the jets that I'm training to. And
he didn't say that boastfully.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
You know they couldn't.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Isn't that interesting?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, you know, I thought, hey, you're a pilot, you
can fly anything for that airline.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Not true. Yeah, they're specific to what you're flying.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Well, I mean, there's a lot more going on on
those really big jets. That's why the entire staff is bigger.
That's on them, light attendants and everything. And actually I
think you have. I mean, on international flights, you don't
just have a pilot, and the copilotlots pilots.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yes, And he said that gives you a chance. It
gives you a chance to take a rest and sleep.
He explained that to me too. That's why it is,
you know, it's all. It's all so well thought out.
I left there feeling better about all of it. You
know me, I don't love to fly, but I'm so
much better than I used to be twenty years ago.
I really am. I can I can tune out even
during turbulence. If I'm reading a good book, I can
(04:22):
tune it out. I used to do like this.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well you can go there. I grabbed the seat. You
just don't claw into my arm anymore the way you
used to all.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I'm really sorry.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
But did he say if they fly mostly on autopilot
or they fly.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I didn't ask that question. See, you guys would have
had so much more fun sitting next to him than me.
But it was interesting to learn about. Like of course,
we were ten minutes into a conversation, and you know,
I asked him about turbulence, and you know, he explained
to me that when they know they see it and
they're going to be going through it. Of course, they
let you know. They don't want passengers to be surprised.
(04:58):
And he said, if you think about the way to design,
you guys would have loved him. You think about the
way it's designed, it's the wings that are doing that.
You know he was giving me.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'm surprised.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He just gave me examples of why the plane is
doing that. What it's doing, it makes sense, so he
physically explained that to me. He also said, if you'll
notice anytime you're going through turbulence, as soon as you
hit the turbulence, the plane is going to slow down
a little bit. And I said, I've never noticed that,
And sure enough, in a little while we went through something.
Because you feel that he just slowed down as he
(05:27):
should have so that you feel it less. Yeah, I'm like, law,
it was fabulous to sit next to him, but he
ended up like I thought it was over. I'm like, oh,
you answer my questions about turbulence. Great, let me get
back to my book. And he just kept on talking
because he's so I would have said him. We talked about,
you know, the weather information that they have, so even
if they do divert and fly a different route because
(05:51):
they're they're doing that for your comfort, so that they
take you out of as much of turbulence as possible.
He also said that he feels the most in the
airline industry. He feels the most for the gate agents
and the flight attendants. Yeah, because he said, like, look
what I'm going to be flying international flights. I'm in
the cockpit, you know, and i know my responsibility is great,
(06:14):
but I'm not dealing with someone who's upset, who's scared,
who's mad, who's been detoured and you know, re routed.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Yeah, they're the first line of customer service.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, And he said mostly for the flight attendants because
they also what they end up doing ninety nine percent
of their time is serving you and dealing you know,
with your what whatever your needs are. But they have
to train for the emergency situations and if they're if
you're in an emergency situation, they're the ones that are
on the ground in it. So he said for him
(06:44):
that he thinks that's one of the toughest jobs. Even
a gate agent can get away from a situation, but
attendance flight attendants cannot because they're on the plane does he.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Say that they are they have any training for humor too,
because you know how sometimes you get the pilots or
the flight attendants that I did.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I did ask him.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I said, well, I didn't say humor, but I said,
are you giving direction about what to say what not
to say? He goes, absolutely, You're supposed to remain comps
if you get that super calm dude. I'm like, yes,
every pilot I've ever heard is like.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Good evening labies and gentlemen. Yeah, experience.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
He just said that.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, I think a pilot with good customer service. Going
back to what you were saying a minute ago, is
you know, they're they're very descriptive about the flight, the time,
what to expect, and and then the you know, the
welcome not just the welcome aboard, but if there's anything
that you need. I mean, I've had some great pilots
that have done that, you know before. But you know,
(07:38):
and Sam your question about takeoff and landing for autopilot,
I had a pilot tell me one time that the
landings and the takeoffs are typically done manually. The plane
is capable of doing it automatically or you know, with
whatever autopilot. But it's done manually, and the in flight
stuff is done on autopilot until they have to start to,
(07:58):
you know, fly around bad weather and that sort of guy.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I did ask him, I probably it's like this, like
he was sitting next to a fifth grade or something,
because I like, so, what's more difficult taking off or landing?
And I was assuming landing and he said landing. You know,
landing was harder. That makes sense because trying.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
To make that, you know, a soft landing. I mean,
you know how many flights have we been on where
it's bounced a little when.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
It's landed, and bounce kills me.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, And sometimes they can't help that when they're flying
into a wind, a crosswind where they're trying to manage
the plane and keep it straight. It's it's not as
easy as you think. There's no reason to get mad
at the pilot for that. He's probably doing his best, right,
I know, I mean, are most of these guys are
guys that have flown on air aircraft carriers before they
know how to cut a plane down on a dot.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I won't get into detail because he didn't get into detail.
But when he was in the Air Force, he was
in Afghanistan and Iraq. Okay, so he has he has
done some stuff in the air in airplanes, so that.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
He probably doesn't have to do in a commercial place now.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
But it was just really interesting actually to hear him
talk about his airline and the industry. I just well,
I left their feeling. I walked away from that feeling like,
you know, we as the customer. I remember, you know,
when we've had difficulties traveling, when we three go go
somewhere together and we're connecting, and I remember thinking, man,
(09:19):
if the airlines really have you, they can mess up
your whole trip, but they don't want to mess up
a thing. And he really explained that to me. They
think about every possible thing, but they don't want you
to miss your connections. Of course, not they know you
have other airline choices. Of course they don't, but they
number one want you to have a good flight experience.
So if it takes them longer to go around turbulence
(09:41):
for you not to have turbulence, They're going to go
a little longer. You know that they understand that. I
just went away feeling like, well, there's a lot more
thought put into all of this than it would seem.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Really you never you never felt that way before.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I don't know, I never thought about it before.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I guess I have flown so much over the years
ever since I as a kid, that it's it has
changed a lot. They've always been customer friendly, but it's
the technology that's changed everything. The radars on the ground
are the reason that they can fly around and well,
and the way the planes are equipped with the radars,
or the reason that they can fly around bad weather
and look. As recently as the nineteen eighties, there were
(10:18):
things about weather patterns that they did not understand. You
could get on some pretty bumpy flights. That's why they
started putting certain types of Doppler radars around airports in
the nineteen eighties to for like downdrafts and those kind
of things that weren't just bouncy but dangerous.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, and so I mean to me, the fact that
you can track your baggage on your smartphone, do anything
that you need to on your smartphone, track to flight.
It's crazy, all that all that communication. Now it's the
best time ever to fly, fly, you know, And I mean, yeah,
I still can't believe as a kid people smoked on
the plane had that. They actually had a smoking section.
(10:56):
I'm like, it's one tube, how do you how are
you going to.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
We're in the non smoking set, right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
But to think that that was even ever a thing
before it was outlawed, it's kind of weird.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Did you ask him is it really necessary to turn
your phone off?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I thought about it. I thought about it, but I
didn't want to.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
There was so much other conversation going I did not
think to ask that, But then that what's he going
to tell me? No, it's not exactly No, I'm sure
he knew. He knew who I was, he knew there
was a possibility that I'd be talking about this for broadcasts,
for podcasting.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And I don't think he was going to tell me
anything in the d L.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
The thing is your cell phone won't work up there anyway,
So the only what happens is your phone is constantly
trying to search for a frequency. And so you have
two hundred people on a plane, you're just creating unnecessary interference.
It's not necessarily going to hurt the plane, but it's unnecessary.
And if you're moving at five hundred miles an hour
and your and your phone happens to grab a cell
tower and then not you can really it can't mess
(12:01):
up the cell providers, you know. So there's a number
of different reasons that you don't turn your phone on.
Nothing's going to be bad if you forget, but you're
probably gonna run your battery down because your phone's gonna
sit there the entire flight trying to find a tower
that it can't find.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
It was an interesting experience.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I mean, it's just how rare, you know, how that
will probably never happen.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Well, somebody who's you know, willing to kind of walk
you through it and pull up his tablet and show
that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I love talking about it. Yeah, I mean you throughout
the weather thing on the tablet.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
My dad would have loved that, because my dad has
been That's the reason that I'm so into it is
because he was an aviation buff. He was going to
go into the Air Force, but because of a medical
condition he couldn't and so he never really it's he
kind of gave up flying after that. He actually was
getting this pilot's license, but then he just kind of
gave up flying after that. But he's always been fascinated
(12:50):
with you know, different types of aircraft as I too,
so I.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Know, we get on a plane. Murphy's always telling me, you know,
this is.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The d D.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Okay, the but I think flight attendants must also have
to have different training for different sized flights. This is
years ago, but I remember it was a flight attendant
I was just talking to and she was sitting back
there with a couple of us.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
What Sam's thinking, How hot was she?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
It was? It wasn't a very full flight, so you know,
I mean she was talking to about six or seven
of us, and and everybody was just asking about, well,
how long have you been doing this? And it was
one of those small regional flights, so it was it
was actually a turbo prop plane. She's a really small plane, right,
And and I asked her, I said, well, so do
you know this is a pretty small aircraft. Do you
(13:38):
ever do you ever fly on the big you know,
the bigger jumbo jets? And she started to tear up
and she said, I don't meet the height requirements. I'm like, oh,
I didn't mean to upset you. I'm very sorry.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
You know you are lying that happen?
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, she started crying. I felt like a complete inn,
you know, well, you didn't know.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
That sounds like something stupid I would walk into.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, it sounds like both of you, you know. And
that's going back to what he said. This pilot and
his first name was Mike. I'm not going to say
his last name, you know, privacy, but his first name
was Mike. But he when he when we talked about
the flight attendants and how he really feels for them.
They have some serious training that you hope they never
have to use, but they have training about how to
(14:20):
exit and get off of the aircraft, you know, if
in the event of emergency. So he's like all mad
respect to them medical emergencies.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I mean, they are all kinds of unexpected.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah, we've seen the movie Airplane. We know it goes on.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
See that's where you guys would have been dorks sitting
next to him, because you he said the word vector
at one point.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
He said something about vector when we.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Were talking about turbulence, and I totally was not about
to call one of your airplane jokes.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
His name was Roger.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
How's the clearance?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Clarence missed any part of the show All at Murphy,
Sam and Jody dot Com
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