How often to passengers take a second to thank you guys after the flight? I make it a point to say "thanks" when practical (i.e. the door is open and the pilots aren't buried in paperwork or checklists) but don't get the impression that many people do the same.

Along those same lines, how often to passengers say inappropriate things after the flight or when a flight is delayed or canceled for mx? Once after a challenging, gusty crosswind approach and landing at LGA (which the pilot nailed, by the way) the guy in front of me asked "How much have you guys had to drink?" on his way out the door. I was impressed at the restraint that the crew showed.

Hi All,
This is my first post on FT. I finally found a thread where I have some area of expertise and could contribute in a useful manner (I'll let you decide if my contributions are actually useful!. Reading the thread I noticed there are a few unanswered questions, I'll do my best to fill in the gaps. I look forward to trading ideas and experiences with you.

Welcome aboard! ^^

The answer depends on whether you want to know about airport operations or the quality of the layover. For airport operations, the smaller the airport, the better! Less traffic, easy in, easy out. No long delays for gates or a takeoff runway.

For the layover, I have to agree with previous posters, SEA and LAS are great entertainment opportunities. On the 737 I liked the long OMA layover, great hotel in the middle of town lots of restaurants (Steak!!!). YVR is also an excellent layover (I know, not domestic...yet...). Our long layover in LAX recently changed to a new location. The hotel is not great but it is an easy walk/bike ride to Venice beach.

I have a couple of questions that maybe you can shed some light on:

• The ding at 10,000 feet - is that automatic, or do you manually have to make that happen?
• What is the reason for not allowing any electronic devices, such as an iPod during T/O and Landing? My guess is to keep people paying attention (more-or-less)... and based on 1404 that would be a good idea, but is there another reason?
• The A320 has a "ditching" mechanism to close off external intakes. Do the Boeing aircraft have a similar mechanism?

Thanks for taking time to answer these and the other questions!

You've already heard some great responses for this one to which I'll add Eagle Colorado. Very entertaining arrival and departure. BTW...TGU is day/visual only.

The ding (double ding actually) is not automatic on our fleet. It is accomplished by cycling the switch for the "no-smoking" sign. The NS sign is hard wired to on but moving the switch still causes the ding, one ding when you move it to On, one when you move it back to OFF, thus "double ding."

No "ditch switch" on Boeing planes. The ditching checklist leads you to close all valves that might let water in (at least all that we have to ability to close).

As for electronics devices...every piece of electronics that is designed for use on an airplane has to be certified by the FAA. It is a complicated and expensive process. To certify every possible combination of cell phone/ipod/dvd player is impossible therefore the FAA defaults to the conservative position--turn them off during critical phases of flight. As a pilot with a BS in electrical engineering I can tell you that the likelihood of any of these devices causing problems with aircraft systems is very small BUT I HAVE SEEN IT HAPPEN! I had the pleasure to fly G-Vs out of Hawaii as one my more difficult tours of duty in the Air Force. I had a cell phone at the time that would, when it rang, cause every display in the G-V cockpit to shimmer. They would get all wavy (not unreadable, just wavy) during the ring. I changed the ringer and the ringer volume and it would still happen. Through experimentation (on the ground of course) I found that there were locations in the cockpit were it would not happen and at least one spot outside the cockpit were it would. Sure the probability is very small but do you want to be in the .01% just so you can watch Bill Murray lop the heads off of carnations for the 40th time (Cinderella story...).

The question that usually follows is: how come I have to turn it off before the door closes but I can turn it on as soon as we clear the runway? Why can't I use my stuff while taxiing out? Now you're talking a combination of getting people to pay attention to safety instructions as well as making sure everything is ready for takeoff. We don't want to be blocking the end of the runway while we wait for folks to turn off their gear.

ps...cell phones and other electronics that transmit have a higher likelihood (still small) of causing problems which is why the FAA bans their use throughout the flight.

I am proposing the following as the standard arrival in SXM:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CivSgzxFcdg

Actually the toughest thing about the SXM arrival is avoiding the temptation to bikini watch on short final!

That's correct.

I also found a YouTube version if that helps you view it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEoDW6t0SWE

Most cell phones kick up their power output when establishing contact with a tower. The "ring" is just the outward manifestation of this (you can have it happen in other occasions, as well). A lot of conference phones are notorious for this. Also, the frequencies used vary by technology GSM is more prone to cause issues with the electronics I come across every day. I'm not sure about avionics packages. I'm surprised that a G-V, especially a USAF one, did not have a reasonably hardened instrument package. At FL500, you get some pretty serious radiation compared to sea level.

Question for the pilots regarding weight and trim: I am on flights occasionally where the pilot seems to back off the throttles pretty significantly coming out of IAH, presumably to trim the bird. Is there a fuel savings, a noise abatement or some other reason for the disparity, or are some pilots just a little lighter on throttle changes than others?

CM,
For the airports I have been into:
SNA: challenging departure and arrival, especially when SoCal is on fire! The departure requires a large power reduction at 1500 feet while your nose is pointed up and you are only about 30% above stall speed.
SXM: not particularly difficult barring any weather problems.
DCA: you are right about the river visual being a challenge, multiple turns at low altitude while configured. And if you get too far off course you can get shot at by the air defenses in the capitol.

If you don't want to land short in the water, like I suggested, you can still become a hero to millions of plane spotters by doing this:

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5763051&nseq=9
http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5970788&nseq=6

Unlike what you posted, these are NOT fake.

Initial level off altitude out of IAH is 4000 feet to stay under arrival traffic until you get further from the airport. Depending on the traffic volume and location, ATC may not require the level off and thus no power reduction. Just guessing from my own experience but I'd say you level at 4000 about 60% of the time, the other 40% departure control clears you higher before you reach 4000.

Thanks, CalIahFo. Very interesting stuff.

Russell,
CO does attempt to do this but much of the decision is out of our control. ATC has to release the flight and ground/tower have to be able to physically make a hole in the traffic to fit it in. I have been on a flight where this has happened. Pushed back at EWR and were about #35 for takeoff. Ground tells us to cross 4L, taxi down P in between the runways, contact tower. We switch to tower, they clear us to takeoff. We passed more than 30 aircraft.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the company tracks how long it takes us from push to takeoff and uses that historical data to schedule the push/arrival times. That's why you will sometimes see a large difference between the times on your ticket (push/arrival) and the flight time announced by the captain. I've seen planned taxi times at EWR as high 1 hour 15 minutes. The flight time from EWR-IAH might be 3:45 but the difference between your dep/arr times on your ticket would be 5:00 (plus a few minutes of taxi in IAH). So even though you sit for an hour waiting to takeoff you could still arrive IAH in time to make connections. Not ideal but it works with what we can control.

Clear as mud?