Just recently, I reviewed an interesting fear of flying book called Dragons of thin air which is a self-help book for anyone who likes information delivered in a different way wrapped up in a little bit of fun and humor. Written by an airline pilot Doug Worrall and aviation educator in association with a Fear of Flying psychologist, Dragons of Thin Air is packed with good info that you need to know to combat your fear, presented in a sense of humor and words of encouragement. It's a great book for children or adults. It's packed with good tips like tornado techniques for dealing with panic attacks, deep breathing exercises and simple explanations about aerodynamics. It talks about the myths about flying that can cause false perceptions that lead to the fight or flight response. It teaches steps on how to have more control when you fly which is something I also advocate on my courses. This book is one of my favorites so far. For more information on this book you could visit his website at : www.dragonsofthinair.com.

                                                           

The aircraft dispatcher is considered to be an additional crew member. The only difference is they don't sit in the cockpit put instead behind a computer screen sitting at a desk. The dispatcher's job is to work with the captain of that flight and plan all the routing, fuel planing, provide forecast weather, & load manifest. Once the captain & dispatcher agree that a flight can be made safely, then it is release. The captain finalize that release by signing a dispatch release certifying that they agree to the terms of the release, flight planning, fuel, and are healthy to fly. Even after the flight is release the dispatcher is continuously checking up on the flight looking for any potential problems such as severe thunderstorms along the route. The dispatcher could plan ahead by checking for conflicts with weather & call the captain to change the route mid-flight to create a better and smooth flight path for the passengers. The dispatcher is a valuable crew member behind the scenes.

Airplane engines have become very reliable over the last several decades. Aircraft manufacturers test engines for one or two large bird strikes, and they are tested under extreme weather elements. If anyone has any doubt that an airplane could fly quite some distance with a lost of both engines then they need to look no further then the space shuttle. The shuttle glides from the earth's orbit back to Cape Canaveral in Florida. It is estimated that an airplane with dual engine flame out could glide around 100 miles at 35,000 ft. Making a glide from high altitude to an airport is called a dead stick landing. Their was a successful landing of a Airbus-330 over the Atlantic by Air Transit Airlines in 2001 that landed safely on the island of Azores which is a Portuguese air base. The cause of that dual engine flame out was caused by a fuel leak. Many airlines have revise their curriculum's to include that in many training scenarios. 
Today, engine failures remain rare. However, when it does happen pilots are well drilled in procedures to fly safely out of danger.

Early this week the FAA has come out with new rules for airline pilot crew duty rest. The new rules was created after a Colgan Airlines commuter crashed 3 years ago in Bufallo, NY. The aviation industry has been debating these changes for a long time. But because of the result of the colgan crash, strong lobbying from the victims families and NTSB recommendations, the FAA felt the pressure to change the rules. The NTSB in most post accident investigations has cited crew fatigue as a partial factor in most accidents that had occurred in the last several decades. Just to give you an idea of some of the FAA new changes include: flight duty times ranges from 9-14 hours, flight time limits of 8-9 hours, minimum crew rest periods increase from 8 to10 hours. One other thing coming is that pilots will have to sign paperwork ensuring they are fit for duty if they are commuting. It is estimated that around 20% of airline pilots commute to work.

Early this week the FAA approved American Airlines to carry ipads in the cockpit for their pilots. Ironically, during the same week actor Alec Baldwin was scolded by American Airlines for failing to shut off his ipad on a flight out of LAX to JFK. It does seem a little hypocrisy for American Airlines to approve ipads inflight for pilots and not passengers. However, the truth of the matter is that the ipads in the cockpit are totally different from passenger versions. The pilots ipads are called EFB's or Electronic Flight Bags. The EFB's are used to replace all the manuals we carry in our black flight bags. So the EFB's will only contain charts, airport analysis information, navigation data, aircraft performance charts, and weight & balance material. The EFB will not have any ability to search the internet. Furthermore, the EFB's are specially modified for the airlines and have been fully tested to make sure they don't interfere with the cockpit instruments and the batteries don't catch fire. The passengers ipads have not been tested & therefore there still remains a risk that it could interfere with the cockpit instruments & the battery catching fire.

Yesterday Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin was removed from an American Airlines flight because he wouldn't turn off his I-phone. Alec was playing the i-phone game words with friends & didn't want his game interrupted. The incident happened on American Airlines flight 4 from Lax inbound to JFK. Alec turned off his game only after being remove from the flight & causing a minor disturbance in the bathroom. Well, one might wonder if this is a big deal? Unfortunately yes, it is a big deal. One of the main jobs of any flight attendant is to make sure the cabin is in full FAA compliance prior to push back from the gate. This basically mean all tray tables must be upright, suit cases stowed, and electronic devices off. When this is complete the number one flight attendant dings the captain with a chime to signal the cabin is in compliance.
If the cabin is not in compliance, then the flight will be held up at the gate into it's complete which will inconvenience your fellow passengers.These minor regulations may seem a bit of a nuisance but, in reality they have important implication behind the scenes. In the 100 years of aviation, regulation had been in place because of previous incidents & accidents.
  

Flight crews typically create their schedules one month in advance by picking a bid line. A bid line is a list of schedule trips including crew pairings of flight attendants and pilots.  Crews can view the crew pairings along with the actual trips to see which is appealing to them. The crews will then record a list of trips they desire by sending a copy to the Crew Scheduling Department of that airline. You can pick International, or domestic. There are also reserve trips which would put a crew on call status. With the reserve trips you don't know who you will be flying with on any given day. They can also call you up to 2 hours in advance for a trip. However, if a crew get a normal bid line they will know in advance the cities they will be flying to as well as the crew pairings. Crews will typically fly together for that month. One thing worth mentioning is that everything in the airline industry is done by seniority. The higher you are in seniority the better the trips.

Every aircraft in an airline's fleet have what we call a can. Basically, a can is a specific aircraft's maintenance logbook. It has the complete history of mechanical problems, and inspections for that aircraft. A airplane can not leave the gate without the can. When the flight crew finishes their trip they find any mechanic issues they had on that flight & make a maintenance entry in the log book. That entry now becomes a open write up which essentially grounds the aircraft into a mechanic closes the write up by inspecting that item & fixing it. Once fixed, the mechanic will sign the can with their certificate number showing that write up is closed and the aircraft can now fly again. One of the first and most important duties that a flight crew do when they first go to the aircraft for their first flight is to look at & inspect the can.

Early this week there was an interesting story about stranded passengers force to pay for fuel in order to fly to their destination. Comtel Airlines an Austrian Air Carrier flying from Amritsar, India to Birmingham, England stopped off in Vienna for refueling. What is shocking about this story is that the air carrier didn't have the finances to pay for the fuel so they forced all 180 passengers to pony up cash to pay for this fuel. Every person payed about $400 to put fuel on this aircraft or faced being stranded. I have to say this is unheard of. Most air carriers have that planned out so passengers never have to worry about this issue because it's part of the price of the ticket. In addition, most air carriers provide captains with a corporate credit card for any miscellaneous expenses. The moral of the story is to never go cheap. Just like everything else in life pick quality, and a reputable airline .

At the moment we are working hard on updating the next update for the turbcast app. We expect to have it updated by the end of Janaury. However, these things are seldom on schedule due to unforeseen software bugs that seem to pop up. Meanwhile, USA Today is doing a upcoming feature story about mobile apps that help people in their daily life's. If you had a positive experience with our app we would encourage you to mention it for us with a positive review at USA Today. Just email  Jefferson Graham at jgraham@usatoday.com .