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: ... 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.