Cockpit Confidential

The questions below are taken from the author’s book, Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel. Questions, Answers, and Reflections. There are dozens more in the book’s seven chapters. A revised and updated edition was published in June, 2018.

• What’s the deal with cell phones? Are they really a safety threat?
• Turbulence: Everything You Need to Know
• The barking dog: those strange noises on Airbus planes
• We are told that planes basically fly themselves. How true is this?
• The truth about cabin air
• What’s with those annoying safety briefings?
• Aborted Landings for Dummies
• Conspiracy Nation: myths, madness, and the “truth” about 9/11
• Fees, fees, fees! Will airlines please stop nickel-and-diming us? Cockpit Confidential: ... Smith, Patrick Best Price: $4.42 Buy New $10.00 (as of 08:40 UTC - Details)
• Looking on the bright side: airfares, routes, and safety
• Is Qantas really the safest airline? And if not, which is?
• Those dangerous foreign airlines?
• The heroics of Captain Sully and the “Miracle on the Hudson”
• How are pilots evaluated for raises or promotions?
• Why do between the US & Europe go far north, sometimes over Greenland?
• What if somebody opens a door during flight?
• Why all the rules about window shades, seat-backs, tray tables & reading lights?
• What’s the lowdown on cell phones and electronic devices?
• Where are the trickiest places to land? Should we be wary of certain airports?
• What’s that trail of mist coming from the wingtip? Is it fuel?

Reprinted with permission from Patrick Smith.

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