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 
During weather delays, do airlines serving their hub get preference in takeoff and landing order? If I’m going through Chicago, should I always fly United?
Malcolm Gladwell once made the point that all aspects of travel, including ground transportation, airports, hotel/lodging, are all profitable businesses except for the air carrier business itself that feeds those businesses. David Einhorn wrote his senior thesis on how airline profitability is cyclical and inversely correlated with the level of regulation (when carriers become profitable, the government steps in and regulates the profitability away, when they see that this bankrupts them, they lower regulation, and the cycle continues). What are some ways traditional carriers can emerge from chronic unprofitability? Lower regulation? Lower pension benefits? Legalize gambling on planes?
H @8: How does your wife get back on in Portland for the return? Or does she return from Eugene?
My office (I telecommute) once booked me a Kalamazoo->Detroit->Dallas flight thinking I lived closer to Kalamazoo (equidistant to Kal & Det). It would mean getting up ninety minutes earlier and getting home two and a half hours later (and adding two forty minute flights), but when I tried to change the reservation, I found the very same seat on the DTW->DAL roundtrip was about $400 more. I asked what would happen if I just showed up at DTW, and they said my flight would be cancelled if I wasn’t on board at Kalamazoo.
Obviously at some level they’ve discounted the flight to fill the Kalamazoo-Detroit plane, but since the ticket was *already paid for*–WTF? Don’t I *save* them money (marginal fuel cost) if I’m *not* on the extra leg?
Doug,
You need to fly through the clouds to get above them. Jets are flying on instruments, under the eye of ATC and thus are kept separated. ATC gives them their heading and altitude, climb rate etc. If you want to stay clear of the clouds get yourself a Cessna 172 and fly Visual Flight Rules, where you are not allowed in the clouds. You will end up flying low and slow, but you will never be in the soup.
Why don’t more pilots turn on Air Traffic Control on one of the internal radio stations. It seems United flights do this more than most.
I’m not a pilot but I like hearing what is going on. Its calming to know why things are happening. Instead of the more common sitting there with no idea why we haven’t moved on the tarmac in 15 minutes.
Its also helpful to hear a big turn has been requested or we are making changes to avoid turbulence as I can inform my wife who is more scared of flying that things are ok and going as planned.
“I remember hearing that landings are completely controlled by auto-pilot. Is this true? How much ACTUAL FLYING do pilots do? ”
Jeff, this common misconception has been addressed by pilot Patrick Smith, both in this very blog as well as his own Ask The Pilot column.
http://freakonomics.com/2006/12/11/freakquel-pilotless-airplanes/
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2007/12/21/askthepilot258/index.html
He’s been an invaluable resource to those of us who tend to be curious about the ins and outs of air travel.
What is the general condition of our fleet of planes today?
I’m an American student who has been in Europe for the past 9 months, and I was wondering if you know how exactly airlines such as RyanAir and Easyjet actually make money? This may be as much for Captain Steve as Writer Steve or Economist Steve.
I understand that airlines change rates depending on when you buy the ticket, and I’m sure not everyone gets the great deals, but paying $00.01 for a one-way ticket (including tax and “other charges”) is just ridiculous. Is there a drastic reduction in fuel costs for shorter flights? Or perhaps their use of out of the way airports is a cost saving mechanism?
I mean, I’m not complaining at all – hopping around Europe this year has been less damaging to my wallet for sure. But those two particular airlines at least seem to be doing very well despite the insanely low ticket prices.