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Our guest is Mary Grady, a contributing writer for AVweb, an online aviation magazine and news service. Mary writes news, covers aviation events, writes feature stories, and takes photos. She holds pilot ratings for airplanes and balloons, and also a ground instructor certificate. She joins us as we talk aviation.
- We cost Dad his job! Kids who took over for Kennedy airport air traffic controller blame themselves
- Kids Take Over JFK Air Traffic Control, and I Think It’s Hilarious
- Bring Your Kid to Work, ATC Style
- Flight attendants union wants combat training
- Flight attendants protest AirTran swimsuit plane
- Allegiant Travel Company to Purchase Six Boeing 757 Aircraft
- Boeing to Offer NewGen Tanker to US Air Force
- Female Pilots To Celebrate Centennial By “Paying It Forward”
David has his This Week in Aviation segment, and Steve and Grant from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast have their Australia Desk report.
Follow the @AirplaneGeeks on Twitter, send us email at thegeeks@airplanegeeks.com, or leave a message on our listener line: (361) GEEKS01.
This episode’s opening and closing music is provided by Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. Visit his site at http://www.brotherloverocks.com/.
G’day guys!
I found your podcast at the same time that I found my fellow countrymen Steve & Grant at PCDU. I love the show and look forward to the news and the banter each week.
Re the kid on the radio in the Tower, I wanted to hear your thoughts on it. While it might have been a bone-headed thing to do, no one got killed or injured. Having said that, it is not the right thing to do. I dare say that the next controller who wants to take their child to work will have second thoughts.
No one on the show seemed to comment about why the controller saw the need to take the kid to work in the first place. Was it because he had no alternative & rather than go off sick, brought the kid to work? Or was it that he was doing that many people want to do and show off their jobs?
Another thing that I thought during the discussion was that Dan (Boy Wonder) didn’t seem to say anything. Unless I missed it, I don’t recall him saying anything about it. Maybe the FAA told him to shut up about it because he’d said enough by being on the radio with his dad in the Tower. I think Rob should ask Dan about his whereabouts on the day in question.
[Kim writes…]
This may be a record …. I was able to listen to Tuesday’s podcast on Wednesday night. Kept me awake (mostly) on a long drive. On the subject of flight attendants getting hand to hand combat training: give me a break. I’ve never gotten into the martial arts, but I understand it takes a long time and intensive training before a person develops the physical skill and confidence to be effective …. if they ever do. Flight attendants currently get only a few days a year of recurrent training to cover the myriad of skills involved in their job …. and now we’re going to make Jackie Chan clones of them? When I was flying the European routes, DL had an F/A over 80 years old …. and the most of the cabin crew was at least as old as I was (late 50s), wonderful ladies and expert flight attendants, but not candidates for a judo class. Its just a ridiculous idea.
Every airliners I flew had inter-phone stations at the front and rear of the aircraft, in addition to beside every boarding door in between. They are required for the departure and arrival door arming checks. What is the point in an additional radio for cockpit contact?
One small flaw in your listener’s case against the back scatter machines. He seems to believe that since images cannot be saved, then there will be no evidence to try the miscreants who are nabbed by the machine. The point is not trial evidence; it is knowing to stop the individual before they get through security. As for my wife, daughters and grand daughters? I have no problem with them going through. The issue of general TSA effectiveness, though, is another question altogether.
Kim
Regarding the question you posed “what should be considered critical flight periods for the purpose of disabling in-flight Internet connectivity?” a simple answer would be to follow the same time lines as with the other IFE equipment. From what I recall, at least on transatlantic flights, the IFE doesn’t begin until the plane has reached cruising altitude.
The airlines could also define the “safe period” as the time the airplane spends at cruise altitude. In the end the only thing that matters is that px know what to expect and the best way to do this is to maintain consistency among airlines.
Keep up the good work, Geeks!