Asleep at the wheel & rudders

[Kauai Kid]

Since you always have to take the red eye back to the mainland from Hawaii perhaps this little news article will help you rest comfortably.

Pilots and airline crews can legally be forced to work 16 hrs a day and even more hours if there is a delay in pushing back because of bad weather.

Ground controllers had to wake the crew on a red eye by yelling at them. The crew had fallen asleep on a United or Frontier red eye between Baltimore and Denver. They were much higher than they should have been 35,000 feet, much faster 608 mph than they should have been and only 60 miles from Denver. (Source ABC News)

Be sure you knock on the cockpit door every 15 minutes or so to make sure the crew is is awake on your next Hawaii red eye flight!!!!!!!!!!!!!:cheer

Sterling

 

[johnmfaeth]

While I am certain that it happens, from shortly after the time the wheels lift up until final descent, the autopilot is typically flying the plane and controls speed and altitude.

Maybe the story was slightly enhanced when retold, but pilot fatique is no joke.

So if you feel the engines throttling back for initial descent, and the pilot does not come on the PA within 5 minutes (as they always do at that point). Time to get a stewardess to bang on the cockpit door. Do it yourself and you may get shot by a sky marshall.

They say flying an airplane is one minute of excitement during takeoff and landing separated by hours of complete boredem.

 

[Kauai Kid]

On the flight to the Islands last time a woman one row back from me and on the opposite side of the plane was talking above the engine & aircraft noise, at least 160 db, for 6.5 hrs--the entire trip. Ocasionally, she'd stop to suck in some more air. She was too loud for me even with foam ear plugs. Everyone within 6 rows of her could hear every bit of minutia from her life from conception to the present.:annoyed:

If she had been flying first class on the red eye there was no way anyone in the cockpit could fall asleep--or in first class for that matter.

They might have asked the sky marshal to shoot her with a tazer.

Sterling

 

[somerville]

You don't have to be tired to fall asleep in the cockpit. When I was on active duty in the Navy as an aircraft navigator years ago, it was not uncommon for someone to doze off in the cockpit on overwater flights. It could get pretty warm up in the cockpit sometimes. That coupled with the boredom of an overwater flight made it easy to doze off.

 

[tompalm]

I know that you guys are joking, but never bang on the cockpit door. If someone thinks that you are trying to break in, you will probably find a flight attendant and a couple passengers pulling you on the ground, putting the cuffs on and calling security to meet the aircraft at the gate when it lands.

 

[Kauai Kid]

Of course I'm joking....but if I really think the folks in the cockpit are asleep I'll make enough noise to wake up the dead. Better to be in cuffs than dead.


Sterling

 

[Kauai Kid]

Locomotives have "dead man" switches that the engineer needs to press every so often or the train automatically stops.

I wonder why commercial aircraft don't have something similar. Like a claxon going off in the cockpit if the crew doesn't press a button every so often.

Sterling

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Like a claxon going off in the cockpit if the crew doesn't press a button every so often.

Sterling

Yeah - a locomotive can be rigged to stop if the button isn't pushed. But you probably wouldn't want to do that with an airplane.

 

[Kauai Kid]

Yeah - a locomotive can be rigged to stop if the button isn't pushed. But you probably wouldn't want to do that with an airplane.

hopefully the Klaxon would wake them up. Perhaps rig the seats with a taser if they don't do something every so often.

I think probably the 16 hr work days may have something to do with the issue also.

Sterling

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

hopefully the Klaxon would wake them up. Perhaps rig the seats with a taser if they don't do something every so often.

I think probably the 16 hr work days may have something to do with the issue also.

Sterling

In lieu of a klaxon in the cockpit, how about a Klingon? Given the Klingon penalty for dereliction, they wouldn't dare fall asleep

 

[tompalm]

We all knew this one was inevitable when the latest iPhone commercial rolled out -- now didnt we?

"Oh joy! I can't wait for the next ground delay or long taxi due to weather somewhere to get a smart ass with a freakin I-phone shoving it in my face saying "It's NOT raining there... SEE !" Too late ... already happened to me. We push back, get advised of a ground stop in MEM due to storms in the area. Go to the penalty box and wait. My Captain does the lecture over the PA... not one minute later, we get dinged from the F/A "Some guy with an IPhone says the weather is good, and wants to know what the real reason is for the delay. Is something wrong with the plane?"

I want to tell this clown what he can do with his IdiotPhone - but the Captain does it even better. He gets on the PA and makes the following announcement :

"If the passenger with the IPhone would be kind enough to use it to check the weather at our alternate, calculate our fuel burn due to being rerouted around the storms, call the dispatcher to arrange our release, and then make a phone call to the nearest Air Traffic Control center to arrange our timely departure amongst the other aircraft carrying passengers with IPhones, then we will be more than happy to depart. Please ring your call button to advise the Flight Attendant and your fellow passengers when you deem it ready and responsible for this multi-million dollar aircraft and its passengers to safely leave."

Needless to say, the pax was pretty embarrassed. The F/A later told us the rest of the plane was outright laughing at this dude. What a clown."

http://www.planebuzz.com/2007/11/we_knew_this_was_going_to_happ.html

The above didn't happen to me, I just read it online and thought that I would throw it in.