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Old Sep 4, 2006, 1:56 pm
  #1  
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Cutesy Cockpit Announcements

On a recent flight the captain made announcements at both takeoff and landing which were said in a false voice that seemed to be trying to imitate an 11 year old boy. At the takeoff announcement several people laughed, but I didn't care for it one bit, as what he was discussing was flight operations, not the football scores.

At landing he made a similar announcement and nobody laughed, possibly because people could sense that there was something vaugely insulting in the way we were being addressed. Does AA have a new directive for their crews to emulate WN? Personally I wish they'd stick to "just the facts, sir".
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 2:31 pm
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Originally Posted by gilpin
On a recent flight the captain made announcements at both takeoff and landing which were said in a false voice that seemed to be trying to imitate an 11 year old boy. At the takeoff announcement several people laughed, but I didn't care for it one bit, as what he was discussing was flight operations, not the football scores.

At landing he made a similar announcement and nobody laughed, possibly because people could sense that there was something vaugely insulting in the way we were being addressed. Does AA have a new directive for their crews to emulate WN? Personally I wish they'd stick to "just the facts, sir".

How do you know this wasn't his normal voice?
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 2:37 pm
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I know it wasn't his normal voice because he delivered most of his message in his normal voice. The parts delivered in a false voice were the messages leading up to the "ready for takeoff" and "prepare for landing" statements which in both cases were delivered with steadily increasing affectation climaxing on the words "takeoff" and "landing" which were said exactly as you might expect a small boy to say those phrases when playing with a toy plane.
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 2:41 pm
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Originally Posted by gilpin
I know it wasn't his normal voice because he delivered most of his message in his normal voice. The parts delivered in a false voice were the messages leading up to the "ready for takeoff" and "prepare for landing" statements which in both cases were delivered with steadily increasing affectation climaxing on the words "takeoff" and "landing" which were said exactly as you might expect a small boy to say those phrases when playing with a toy plane.

Is it possible that it was the co-pilot making these announcements? and possibly a female co-pilot with a higher pitched voice?
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 2:47 pm
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I'm pretty certain it was the captain, but I wouldn't bet my life on it not having been the co-pilot. What I am certain of is that one person made all the announcements and it was a man. In fact I saw that both pilots on this flight were men.
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 2:50 pm
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People listen to those announcements?
And care one iota what or how they say things?
I wonder why.
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 3:21 pm
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I once was on a flight up from the Caribbean, where the captain insisted on giving us virtually play-by-play updates to some basketball game (apparently the pilots chat over the company dispatch frequencies or something).

It got a bit tiresome after a while.
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 3:32 pm
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if you are tryng to sleep or read, the less chatter the better. If you are blind, maybe the "Grand Canyon off the port wing tip" stuff is helpfull.

mostly, I just wish the announcements were not so long, so loud or so frequent. But I must be alone on this issue.
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 4:44 pm
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You are not alone, I cannot imagine anyone but the newest noobs listen to anything they have to say since the main content never changes, and the route you take is so miniscule in its importance. Or how high you are etc. Just get going already and only wake us up with delay reasons, which of course they don't do -then they are silent like Marcel Marceau in a Monastery.
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 7:00 pm
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Definitely not alone. Be quiet and drive the bus, please.

Everybody these days wants to be a talk show host!
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 7:50 pm
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Pilot chat

Originally Posted by Teacher49
Definitely not alone. Be quiet and drive the bus, please.

Everybody these days wants to be a talk show host!
I sure agree with you and others here expressing the same sentiment. We have not experienced anything as bizarre as the pilot imitating the kid, but we have heard a lot more chatter this year than ever before from the cockpit.
Is there some directive from AA for the pilots to comminicate with the PAX?
Unfortunately, it does not happen when you REALLY want to know what's going on; i.e, after an hour or two on the tarmac!
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 8:21 pm
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Worst I had was on AA on a Memorial Day flight SFO - ORD a few years back. There was a pilot I saw a couple of times on that route wearing an oversized American flag tie.

On this particular occasion, he took the mic for the PA system that the FAs use, stood in the doorway facing us pax and welcomed everybody on board for nearly half a minute. Once under way, he regaled us for a good three minutes with the most cliché ridden patriotic speech about Memorial Day you can imagine.

Captive audience for frustrated performers every once in a while, I suppose.
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 8:39 pm
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Anyone remember the AA pilot that went by the name of "Cowboy" in the early and mid-1990s?

"Y'all cinch up those seatbelts real good, because this bronc's a gonna start buckin."
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Old Sep 4, 2006, 9:17 pm
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On a recent flight, the captain welcomed everyone on board by saying that he had left the keys to the ignition at home, and was waiting for his wife or mechanics to bring a new one...
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Old Sep 5, 2006, 3:24 am
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I had a singing 777 capt on my recent JFK-LHR flight. Cheesy southwest style songs with lots of puns. the plane loved it and gave him applause after the songs. Definitely a nice way to start the flight with a smile on everybody's faces
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