Not long ago during a ground delay at my beloved LaGuardia, I met an off-duty airline captain and we got to talking. His name is Steve. (Isn’t everyone’s?) Our conversation lasted two or three hours. As I mentioned in this post — about Steve’s suggestion for shutting down LaGuardia in order to ease New York City air congestion — he knew an awful lot about nearly every aspect of modern air travel.
The good news is that he has agreed to share this knowledge with the rest of us on a regular basis. As longtime readers of this blog are well aware, airline issues have been a recurring theme, ranging from the old cellphone debate to safety precautions to the question of why flight attendants aren’t tipped.
So leave your questions for Captain Steve in the comments section and over time he will answer them in small batches. You can also send questions here.
A little background: Steve is a captain at a major U.S. international airline, and has flown as a captain both domestically and internationally. His aircaft include: B727, B737, MD80, Fokker100, B757, B767; he has 26 years of total experience, 22 years of commercial flying, 11 as captain. Total flying time: more than 14,000 hours. He began as an Air Force/Air National Guard pilot, flying the Vought A-7D/K Corsair II and the Lockheed F-16C/D Fighting Falcon.
Just to start things off, I asked Steve about the recent story of an American Airlines pilot failing a breath test at Heathrow. (There are random tests for pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics.) Here’s Steve’s reply:
I hope that he was headed to Security and Airport Operations to notify them he was not fit to fly — i.e., sick.
Sadly, this has happened several times at a few airlines in the past half-dozen years. Scenario: a guy “overdoes” it the night before, realizes the situation in the morning, and rather than call his company from the hotel, he gets dressed and heads to the airport to inform the captain or Operations people in person. Bad move.
Then they get caught up in the drama and politics of the security screeners. Then it is headline news and then “guilty” until proven innocent because you are a pilot! Makes great headlines.
On the other hand, he may be stupid and thought he could slip through. Rare, but very possible.
Thanks to Captain Steve for this and future answers, and to all of you for what I’m sure will be a good batch of questions.
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. You can also watch it on 
Seriously, how does my keeping my iPod on affect flights taking off? It’s so annoying when they ask me to turn my iPod off, when I’ve had it on (secretly, of course) and the flight’s never really had a problem taking off?
I’m quite sure they make you turn your ipod off because they want you to pay attention to their evacuation spiel… you know, in case they have to land the plane in the Hudson or something…
I have pet rats (spare me the comments lest I launch into a lengthy defense of my choice in pets) – their “travel case” is a soft pouch about the size of a large women’s purse. Why can’t I bring them on as my “carry on” luggage? There doesn’t seem to be any difference between a bag of rats (that stay in the bag) and a bag of anything else. A small animal like a rat is too fragile to survive shipping in the luggage hold.
How safe is it to fly regional jets compared to larger planes? How experienced (in general) are the pilots of the regional jets? Do pilots today begin their careers with regional airlines or other types of flying such as cargo planes, military, etc?
I have been on too many flights to count where our flight path and altitude has the plane flying through clouds for many minutes at a time. Since I am not a fan of turbulence, I wonder why this happens, and wonder what is involved with a pilot getting permission to alter his/her path or altitude so that this annoyance (or more so to some) can be avoided. Or is this such a minor thing to a pilot/atc that he or she just doesn’t care?
I will say also that I’ve always been a fan of crew members who give updates from the cockpit as to why certain things are happening (turbulence, turning, circling, etc) and wonder how you, Steve the Pilot, feel about whether this is useful or not.
I remember hearing that landings are completely controlled by auto-pilot. Is this true? How much ACTUAL FLYING do pilots do? (I don’t mean that as a rhetorical question)
I am deaf with aids, which makes me severely hearing impaired. I have found that airlines continue to discriminate against my group. I have been told that I must board with my “group.” Not being able to hear, this makes it hard. I have gone up to agents and told them I was hearing impaired to ensure I wouldn’t miss my flight or an announcement of a gate change – to no avail . Unfortunately, I experienced many years of speech therapy, so I don’t sound “deaf.”
The airlines do not want to reimburse as it’s my responsibility to get on the flight. They have told me I should get a wheelchair so they will SEE I am “disabled.” I have written the Dept of Justice and Transportation, along with my representatives, but nothing has changed. What can a hearing impaired person or anyone with a “invisible” disability do?
1. Why on Earth do the people that sit in first class want/need to get on the plane first? Who really *wants* to be *on a plane*? Board last and exit first would seem to be the optimal strategy.
2. How is it possible that a roundtrip ticket for the route: DEN->PDX->EUG is *cheaper* than the roundtrip ticket: DEN->PDX? Same flights, planes, airline and schedule. My wife travels this a lot, and buys the first itinerary but gets off in PDX.
H