I didn’t think the National Championship Air Races, held in Reno, Nevada each year in September, were for me, but after seeing a thrilling, giant IMAX 3D movie about the event, I’ve changed my mind.
I saw the Air Racers IMAX 3D movie at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle (along with what appeared to be a lot of dads with their 8 year old sons) but if you scroll to the bottom of the film info page, you’ll see that the film is also playing in numerous cities around the country – and around the world.
Based on questions he began gathering during his stint as the “Ask the Pilot” columnist on Salon.com and for his 2004 Ask the Pilot book, this new book covers air travel, airports, airplanes and some of the scary things that do – and do not – happen on airplanes.
A glossary of aviation-related terms to help travelers speak “airline” is included as well.
Smith clearly understands the contempt passengers have for many aspects of modern-day air travel, but he is also an unabashed fan of flying and of the magic and drama that goes into getting from here to there.
Here’s an excerpt from my interview with Smith about some of the topics covered in the book, about his first airplane ride and about the TSA’s plan to allow small knives back on airplanes.
Your bio tells us you’re a pilot for a major airline. Which one?
Smith: I wish I could tell you. It’s an airline you’ve heard of, but airlines don’t want people out there appearing to speak on their behalf. I will tell you I’m pro-flying: despite the hassles of travel, flying today is remarkably affordable – airfares are half of what they were thirty years ago – and it is astonishingly safe.
Smith and his sister boarding a plane for his first flight. Courtesy Patrick Smith
Do you remember your first airplane ride?
Smith: I recall almost everything about it! It was in 1974 and the plane was an American Airlines 727. I especially remember the sandwiches they served, which came with a double helping of cheesecake for dessert.
On airplanes, some pilots barely communicate with passengers, while others chat away on the PA giving everything from sports scores and weather updates to detailed descriptions of landmarks on the ground below. Are there rules about this?
Smith: It’s up to the pilot and there’s no formal training for this, although there are some guidelines in our manuals. I try to be concise and keep passengers informed, and I will point out things below. Greenland can be spectacular and I know people may be sleeping or watching a movie when we’re flying over, but it’s just such a great view that I will break in and tell people to look out at the glaciers and mountains down there because they’re so cool.
Even if I’m snoozing, I’d hate to miss a chance to see Greenland from the sky. Which brings me to: how do pilots stay awake on very long flights? Are you up there in the cockpit singing silly songs and doing jumping jacks?
Smith: No, on those long flights we’re not sitting up there in the cockpit the entire time. On flights longer than 8 hours – and some can be up to 15 or 16 hours – we bring extra crew members along and we swap out. There are designated seats or rest areas on airplanes that can be underneath the cabin or in an upper compartment. Some are surprisingly comfortable, almost luxurious, and make it very easy to get rest and to sleep.
Pilots spend a lot of time in the air, of course, but you must also pass through a lot of airports. Do you have some favorites and/or pet peeves?
Smith: When you compare and contrast US airports with those in other countries, especially in Asia, international ones wins out. Incheon International Airport in South Korea is probably my favorite: it’s immaculately clean and quiet, there’s a museum, free showers and a hotel inside of immigration, so if you have a long layover you can check in without having to go through customs.
I find many US airports to be very loud with all those airport and TSA announcements on the public address system, messages being run over each other and the TV monitors running constantly at every gate. Those noise levels go a long way to making an already stressful experience more stressful.
Speaking of the TSA, what do think of TSA’s plan to take small knives and some previously banned sports equipment off the prohibited items list for carry-on items?
Smith: Apparently TSA feels there is no longer any point, pardon the pun, in rummaging through bags to confiscate small knives and scissors when there are thousands of ways to contrive a weapon that’s at least as dangerous a two-inch hobby knife.
Obviously I’m not in favor of any policy that would make it easier for somebody to physical attack and injure a colleague, but from TSA’s perspective the new rules free up resources and allow guards to look for more potent threats, including bombs and improvised explosives.
(A slightly different version of my interview with Patrick Smith about Cockpit Confidential first appeared on NBCNews.com Travel)
On Thursday, Transportation Security Administration Chief John Pistole went before lawmakers on Thursday and re-confirmed the agency’s decision to allow some knives and other items on airplanes for the first time since they were banned following the 9/11 terror attacks.
“I think the decision is solid and it stands and we plan to move forward,” Pistole testified before the House Homeland Security Committee, The Associated Press reported. It’s unlikely in these days of hardened cockpit doors and other preventative measures that the small folding knives could be used by terrorists to take over a plane, Pistole said.
On March 5, TSA announced that some knives under two and a half inches and some previously banned sports equipment, including hockey sticks, will be allowed back on airplanes.
TSA says the change to the prohibited items list is “part of an overall risk-based security approach” allowing employees to better focus on “finding higher threat items such as explosives.”
But groups representing airline industry workers, including many flight attendants, pilots, TSA officers and federal air marshals, have come out against what they characterizes as a dangerous and “ill-advised” move.
This will “put law enforcement officers and the flying public at greater risk,” said Jon Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.
Several members of the House committee share those concerns and urged Pistole to reconsider his position, AP reported.
The Teamsters, as well as the United Steelworkers and some passengers rights groups have also stated their opposition to the new TSA rules and executives at American Airlines, US Airways and Delta Air Lines have written letters directly to the TSA chief.
“We object to the agency decision to allow small knives back in the airplane cabin,” Richard Anderson, Delta’s chief executive officer, wrote in a letter dated March 8th. In a letter dated March 12, American Airlines senior vice president William Ris encouraged TSA “to reassess its proposed revisions to the prohibited items list.”
Southwest Airlines “is engaged with TSA in discussions,” said spokesman Chris Mainz. United has also expressed concerns to the TSA about the policy, but on Thursday a spokesperson declined to offer specifics.
The airline trade group Airlines for America was originally in support of TSA’s approach to “combining its vast experience with billions of passenger screenings with thorough risk-based assessments,” but it has softened its stance.
“We believe additional discussion is warranted before items that have been banned for more than 11 years are allowed back on aircraft,” said A4A spokeswoman Katie Connell.
A petition asking the White House to stop the TSA changes now has over 30,000 signatures. Earlier this week, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced legislation with Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) aimed at blocking the changes as well.
Not everyone is happy about the TSA’s decision to take small knives and sports equipment – including golf clubs (2 per person), pool cues, lacrosse sticks, hockey sticks, ski poles – and small novelty/souvenir bats off the list of items that passengers are prohibited to take on planes as part of their allowable carry-on items.
The new rules go into effect on April 25, but many flight attendants and their unions aren’t happy. The Flight Attendants Union Coalition released a statement blasting the TSA’s decision. and Ian Funderburg, who identifies himself as a flight attendant, has started an on-line petition asking the President of the United States to reverse the TSA’s Decision.
A TSA spokesperson told me on Wednesday that the agency worked closely with airlines on this latest revision of the prohibited items list and that airlines were comfortable with the action.
I was also reminded that while the TSA has said it’s OK for hockey sticks and other sports equipment to go through the security checkpoint and taken onto planes, that doesn’t mean that an airline must allow that stick or that equipment onto the plane. If an item is deemed too big for the overhead bin, or if the item exceeds the number of carry-on items a passengers is allowed, an airline still has the right to ask a passenger to check an item that will not fit an overhead bin.
And if passengers are asked to check – and pay baggage fees for – sports equipment that TSA says is allowable past the security checkpoint, you can bet there are going to be dust ups and debate.
I had the pleasure of talking about this topic on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered on Wednesday evening. You can hear that four minute story here.
Undated winter view of Wien Alaska Airlines airplane with musher and dog team in foreground. Image credit: Wien Collection/Anchorage Museum
One hundred years after the first powered flight in Alaska, the Anchorage Museum on Saturday opens a major exhibition celebrating the rich and remarkable stamp aviation has had on the Frontier State.
That history began as a spectacle. In 1913, several Fairbanks merchants got together to ship a biplane from Seattle to Alaska by steamboat. They then sold tickets so onlookers could watch two barnstormers fly the plane 200 feet above the ground at a lazy 45 mph.
Ten years after that first powered flight in Alaska, Anchorage officials declared a holiday so people could come out and help clear land for the city’s first airstrip.
“In the early days, Alaska was a very inaccessible, remote place, with very few roads and some dog sled trails crisscrossing the territory,” aviation historian Ted Spencer told NBC News. “With airplanes, though, mail could be delivered in hours rather than weeks. Remote village and towns could be connected. Life changed incredibly.”
The exhibit, Arctic Flight: A Century of Alaska Aviation, showcases photographs and artifacts — including leather and fur-lined outfits worn by bush pilots and the tires and handmade skis inventive pilots attached to bush planes to allow them to land on glaciers and frozen lakes.
Even empty fuel cans, fabric, crates and other flight-related items intentionally or unintentionally left behind had an impact in remote places. “Those items were used to make furniture, clothing and household objects that are still around,” said Julie Decker, the museum’s chief curator. “In Alaska, people are very practical.”
Bush pilots became heroes in small towns and villages, Decker said. “They were a connection to the outside world and they could deliver things to places where things could never get delivered before,” she said.
This Stearman C2B biplane was flown by several legendary Alaska bush pilots including Joe Crosson, the first pilot to land on Mount McKinley, and Noel Wien, founder of the state’s first airline. Image credit: Eric Long/Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Pilots were also real-life Alaskan characters that had to be skilled in the air and on the ground. “They needed to be able to not only fly the planes, but fix them. And they needed to be able to survive in the cold and in the wilderness,” said Decker. “Imagine how tough and hearty they had to be in the early days of flying when the planes had open cockpits and it was 40 degrees below zero – on the ground.”
Other artifacts on exhibit include a Stearman C2B biplane flown by several legendary bush pilots, ephemera and memorabilia from a variety of former Alaska-based commercial airlines, a 1927 film clip from the first airplane to fly over the North Pole, and bits of airplane crash wreckage, including pieces from the 1935 crash that killed famed aviator Wiley Post and entertainer-humorist Will Rogers near Barrow, Alaska.
And while improvements in technology have made flying much safer than it was when that biplane first came to Alaska, Decker says “weather trumps all” and that flying small or large planes in Alaska can still present a formidable challenge.
“The state is just so huge, with all sorts of water formations, vast and rugged landscapes and extreme, unpredictable weather. Even with modern airplanes, GPS and radio communications, there are still crashes and planes still occasionally disappear,” Spencer said.
” out this week from Sourcebooks.
