Agreed--I had a crack-of-dawn WN flight from AUS to PHX and was awakened out of a sound slumber by a very enthusiastic pilot to announce that we were flying over Las Cruces or some other hole. Definitely not the aurora borealis.

My peeve is the long key-on-mic pauses that interrupt IFE. As for the turbulence, I'm not really easily bothered, and my wife gets so disturbed that no amount of reassurance from the pilot will really help.

Wow. You guys sure have a lot of exciting things happen to you. I have flown over 3,000,000 miles and have had no close calls, engines that died, or even big medical crises on the plane. I have been in severe turbulence a few times but never enough to make me call on my higher power. Color me lucky.

I assure you, unless you were unconscious, were you in actual SEVERE TURBULENCE you'd have been calling on something. Many people have been through MODERATE turbulence but not SEVERE. I myself have only been in SEVERE turbulence twice and once we had some seatbelts fail... not pretty.

Leave the public relations to the FA's; they're much better at it. As a former military pilot, all I ask of the pilots is to do is a superb job of flying the aircraft, from the pre-flight walk around to a smooth stop at the jetway. Oh yes, and obey all the rules.

was this with southwest?

Just an opinion, but most of us have probably never seen anything more than "moderate turbulence" as far as the definition is concerned.

Definitions of turbulence levels per http://www.pnl.gov/atmospheric/docs/...appendix_c.pdf

Chop - Refers to a light or moderate climatic condition of washboard-type fluctuations occurring at rapid
and frequent intervals.

Light turbulence - An airborne condition where the aircraft is subjected to irregular perturbations of small
magnitude from smooth slight and occupants may be required to use seat belts, but objects in the aircraft
remain at rest.

Moderate Turbulence - An airborne condition where the aircraft is subjected to irregular perturbations of
uncomfortable magnitude from smooth flight and the occupants are required to use seat belts and are
occasionally thrown against the belt; unsecured objects in the aircraft may move about. This condition
requires the constant attention of an experienced pilot for safe flight.

Severe Turbulence - An airborne condition where the aircraft is subjected to irregular perturbations of
high magnitude from smooth flight and may be at the limits of control boundaries. Occupants can be
expected to be thrown violently against the seat belt and objects not secured are tossed about.

...........................................

RFTraveler

No, it was before I came to Southwest.

I wish. I've been on a number of flights that got into the severe range.
Evidence: FA with broken bones on one transpac; Ch9 reporting "moderate
to severe turbulence" (over the Rockies somewhere); and so on. Not
bragging - these were fairly disquieting flights and I'd rather not have had
the experience. I'm guessing that many of the VFFs here have seen similar.

And it's also so highly subjective. One man's moderate turbulence might be a severe for another. It's not like there's a warning light that goes off in the cockpit differentiating between the levels. I for one have seen a FA actually levitate briefly (from a sudden altitude drop) and then slam almost face first in to the aisle. She didn't seem bothered by it in the least and kept about her duties. So for her, probably moderate, for me, I thought I we were going to die.

Flew with Cityhopper two weeks ago out of TLS. Wheels were up at exactly noon, and the seatbelt sign was off at 12:02 (yes, I looked at my watch). Either it was off a little early, or those little Fokkers can really climb.

Notice on descent (or slightly before) is good too. I know 30 minutes out is usually the beginning of approach and to go if necessary, but most don't.

Biggest thing for me as a FFer is that I like to know the take-off to touch-down length - how long we're going to be in the air (approximately). Just gives me a little idea of when we'll be touching down to help me plan for my arrival (several times, I've been able to clearly gauge if I can go to the nicer lounge one concourse over, or knowing that since I had a hike for a connection to go straight to the next gate and not even think about the lounge).

As for announcements, one before take-off is more than sufficient for me - flight lengths, any expected weather troubles/turbulence, etc. And one in the descent saying we're 20 minutes out/100 miles out (I'm a fan of getting both of these numbers, again to calculate arrival time...)

Making sure that the flight is smooth and that I do my very best to make it a good landing IS my job. However, it is no more than the required minimum. There are many very small, insignificant things we can do for each other that make the world of a difference (and this doesn't apply to just aviation).

For example, I'm not going to sit there and watch an old lady stand in the cold waiting for her wheelchair when I know exactly where there is one. Also, if clearly explaining turbulence or IRROPS calms nerves and helps people enjoy their flight, I can't see how this is wrong.

Also, I wouldn't expect my FA's to be able to properly explain a maintenance issue or a deicing delay. If I can do it in a clear, concise manner while calming my passenger's nerves, then why not?

Nevertheless, this thread isn't about droning on and on just to hear my voice, changing the customer service philosophy of an entire airline, waking up my passengers at 11pm with useless information, or even fluffing up my ego. It's about learning how to properly communicate with my customers and trying to gauge what they expect.

Southwest Airlines prints a quote at the bottom of every paycheck that says something along the lines of, "Provided by the customers of Southwest Airlines".

One should never loose sight of this fact.

Checko