Most of us already know what to expect on a standard flight; strange smells, no leg room, horrible free food or expensive snacks and drinks… It’s standard knowledge that is well known among passengers. But, what about the pilots? What’s it like to fly in the cockpit? Well here are 10 Things Only Pilots Know About The Flight.
1 PILOT NAPS
Yes, they do take naps. Some of them work 14 hours a day, so this helps them stay refreshed, enough to fly us home safely. But, don’t worry, that’s why there are two pilots, they don’t sleep at the same time, they take turns.
2 LIGHTNING
Although the plane can get struck by lightning that doesn’t mean it’ll bringing the plane down. All you’d notice, if the plane was truck by lightning, would be a large boom and a bright flash, but that’s all. Thankfully, the plane is prepared to withstand lightning strikes.
3 THEY EAT DIFFERENT FOOD
Well, we don’t mean they eat special food or anything, they’ll still be choosing from the same menu as the rest of the passengers, well maybe a little bit more improved. But they won’t both choose the same thing, just in case one of them gets sick from what they ate. So, you will always have a healthy pilot flying the plane. Unless both meals were off…
4 ENGINES DO FAIL
The engines are machines and as all machines they break down from time to time. And seeing as a plane spends 80% of its time on the air… they usually break during the flight. But don’t worry, pilots can perfectly fly with one engine. In most cases, you won’t even notice and the pilot won’t even tell you, so you don’t panic.
5 IT’S EXPENSIVE TO BECOME A PILOT
Most people think that pilots have the luxury lifestyle but… well, they do… but not at the beginning, first they have to pay thousands of dollars to get the hours needed to fly as a co-pilot, and that means spending lots of money renting a plane in order to get time in the sky.
6 LANDINGS
Although 90 percent of the flight is done by autopilot, the take-off and landing are all in the hands of the pilots. So, as you can imagine, if they can land smoothly and without incident then they’ll be considered a good pilot. And if they have less precision, well, then not so good.
7 PILOTS WARN ATTENDANTS FIRST
Pilots know the weather they’re about to fly through and if it’s likely to cause turbulence they’ll immediately warn the flight first attendants. So if you see flight attendants rushing to their seats to sit down. The best thing you can do is to imitate them.
8 IMPORTANCE OF TIME
For the pilots, the most important thing on their flight is not you, nope, but their on-time performance. Lots of people miss a connecting flight if a passenger turnes up late. So… the plane won’t wait for you at the gate.
9 FAA RULES
Not even the pilots understand some of the FAA rules in relation to passengers. Like, why passengers have to keep seat belts on after landing, while the plane’s on the ground, being taxied to the terminal when they’re allowed to stand up and use the bathroom at 39 thousand feet while traveling at 400mph. At least we’re not alone in those thoughts.
10 ROUGH LANDINGS
According to pilots, some hard landings are done on purpose, as a way to solve tricky landing situations. So if the runway is slick, icy, snow-covered or short, they can hit down hard to create more friction to stop the plane. Clever…
Which of these things surprised you the most?
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