Gadling

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!

Bud vents a little frustration:

There is no data whatsoever that cell phones interfere with airplane navigation systems. In fact, there have been tests with cell phone signals amplified ten fold and without interference. So every time the flight attendent comes on the intercom and tells the cabin to turn off cell phones because "they may interfere" with the airplanes navigation system, I simply stop and think to myself, that if they would lie to me about something that doesn't hurt at all, how much can they be trusted to tell me the truth about something that really might be harmful. I think that if you will lie about a small thing, you will lie about a big one. And since the Captain allows the lie to be broadcast, who can you really trust? Reminds me of the government agent arriving on a doorstep and saying "trust me, I'm here to help you!" Yeah! Right?

I don't agree with your logic, Bud. The most frequently quoted study was done by Carnigie Mellon University in 2003. Their comprehensive findings were summarized as follows:

Today's photo of the day comes from Emerald2810, a new contributor to the Gadling Flickr Pool. The picture is called "Downtown Daisies!"

He lives in Ireland and captured this with a Canon G9 camera. I'm so impressed with the angle he chose that I'm about to run out and take a few shots of some flowers right now!

Way to go, Edmond!

Are you a Flickr user who'd like to share a travel related picture or two for our consideration? Submit it to Gadling's Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!

We left off in the last episode looking at an extra two nights in Paris after a mechanical issue caused our flight back to Boston to cancel.

This was because our 7:10 p.m. required departure time had arrived and the mechanics still hadn't found the problem. So now there was no way to get to Boston without exceeding our 14 hour maximum time on duty.

We couldn't believe the situation. A five-day Paris trip? I've always envied the British Airways and Virgin crews that layover for days in the Caribbean. We'd finally get a chance to experience Paris after a full night's sleep.

Later that evening, the mechanics narrowed down our problem to a faulty total air temperature probe. This probe supplies the temperature information for the FMS (Flight Management System - The airplane's 'computer.') which calculates our Mach number and how high we can fly, among many other things. They'd have to fly a new temperature probe in from Chicago the next morning.

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!

Paul asks:

Hi Kent,

My question is about winglets. We see most of the RJ's have winglets and many airlines are either retrofitting or purchasing their 757's and 737's to include winglets.

If these are such a performance enhancer and fuel saver, why don't we see winglets on 767 and 777 aircraft? There are many of these aircraft in the air today so one might assume an opportunity for fuel reduction and cost savings is being lost. What's your take on this?

That's a very good point, Paul. I asked about the 777 a few years ago and I've been told that the wing design on the large Boeing won't accept winglets. I'm not sure if it couldn't handle them structurally or if the wing was already efficient enough that winglets wouldn't help.

I do know that the wingspan of a 777 was a significant concern for airlines when they were planning the gate spacing before the airplane was delivered. Since the 757 with winglets has a 10 foot longer span, I would think it might be a problem with our infrastructure at certain airports.

Here's a photo from Minuano12 that just might inspire those who are suffering in the sweltering heat this July to take a dip. It cools me off just looking at it. The shot, titled Caida con burbujas was apparently taken in Spain just two days ago.

Nice job, Minuano12!

Are you a Flickr user who'd like to share a travel related picture or two for our consideration? Submit it to Gadling's Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!

I've often marveled at how smooth air travel has become. Contrary to media reports, tens of thousands of flights operate every day with nary an issue. That was certainly the case for the previous six Paris trips this month.

The first clue that it'd be a more interesting flight came as I walked into the cockpit after doing the walk-around inspection outside. The captain mentioned that we didn't have any autothrottles tonight. It's akin to driving a car for 7 hours without cruise control.

I pulled out my Macbook to check the 767 MEL (Minimum Equipment List) to see if there were any issues about flying across the Atlantic without the autothrottles. Nothing came up, which meant they could be deferred for a few days until repairs or component replacements could be made.

At this point I can already hear a few corporate and regional airline pilots screaming, "Hey, we don't even HAVE autothrottles!"

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!

When I started Plane Answers a few months ago, one of the most common questions was how a person might go about learning to fly, getting their ratings and gaining enough experience to be noticed by an airline.

Before I've even had the chance to answer that, the industry has taken a sharp turn for the worse and now I'm getting questions about whether or not it's even worth it to pursue a flying job.

Here are two such questions:

Michael asks:

I've been reading your column for a couple of weeks now, yet I haven't noticed you talk about the state of the industry for college students who want to become professional pilots. I'm enrolled in a pilot training program at Arizona State, and on track to receiving an internship when I graduate. In your opinion, with the way the airline industry is now, do you think I should still pursue a career as an airline pilot?

And Steve asks:

Kent,

My grandson would love to be a airline pilot. He is building flight
time and attending college at the same time and it's a very expensive
burden for the family. With the layoffs and pay cuts that pilots in
the industry are recently experiencing-is he wasting his time and our
money?

Flickr contributor Sgorainick submitted this photo for Gadling's photo of the day. "Volcanos in the Mist" was taken in Indonesia. You can still see some of the sulfur belching from Mount Bromo in the distance. I'm sure it didn't smell good, but who wouldn't put up with a little sulfur smell to get a shot like this?

Way to go Sgorainick!

Think you can top Sgorainick? Contribute some of your best pictures to our Gadling group on Flickr and find out!

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!

Julie asks:

Hi Kent, I love your blog! You have mentioned before the importance of a pilot staying with one airline throughout his career because seniority is everything. Recently, you also noted that some airlines like Air France will even pay for a pilot's training, which sounds like a nice incentive to try to become their employee.

It seems like there are many different factors to seriously consider before joining an airline, especially since you are hoping to be with the airline for several years.

With all of these factors to think about, how did you choose which airline you wanted to work for when you were just starting out?

Cockpit Chronicles takes you along on each of Kent's trips as a co-pilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 out of Boston.

"We've had a minor explosion back here," one of the flight attendants, Susan, told us during our preflight.

"There's orange juice all over 2H and J."

Selfishly, we all perked up. Those were our crew rest seats. The thought of sitting in a wet seat gave a new urgency to the co-pilot's voice when calling maintenance to get the cover and cushion replaced.

I was the relief pilot again for this flight. My schedule for June is exclusively for FB trips to Paris, but occasionally I'm able to trade over to the co-pilot seat if it opens up during the month, which leaves my relief pilot position open to someone who's on reserve or another pilot who's able to trade into it.