Browsing: Cockpit & Operations

Who actually flies you, why two quotes for the same route differ so much, how far ahead you really need to book, and what to check before you pay.

What a Part 135 charter operator is legally required to carry, why experienced buyers insist on far more, and the four things to confirm before you sign for a trip.

When your bag transfers automatically, when you have to collect it yourself, what happens to it when you miss the connection, and what the airline owes you when it goes missing.

Every airliner is struck about once a year, and 90 percent of those strikes are triggered by the aircraft itself. What the bolt does, why no jet has been lost to one since 1963, and the real reason crews give thunderstorms 20 miles.

X-rayed for density, flicked off a sorter at two metres a second, and stacked in a heated hold. The full journey your checked bag takes, where 39 percent of them actually go missing, and what happens to the ones nobody claims.

Around 20,000 bird strikes a year in the US alone, and almost all of them are harmless. What aircraft are actually built to survive, the engine tests nobody talks about, and why the problem is getting worse.

They’re orange, there are two of them, and one of them hears everything said on the flight deck. What flight recorders capture, the brutal tests they pass, why they live in the tail, and why some are still never found.

Thirty years of accident data point to one part of the cabin, and it’s the seat almost nobody picks on purpose. Plus the factor survivors say mattered more than the row, and the 90-second rule that explains why crew won’t let you take your bag.

Single ding, double chime, high-low, triple: the sounds on every flight are a coded language between the cockpit and the cabin crew. Here is what each one means, the one crews train for and hope never to hear, and why the lights dim and the shades go up.

Airline Pilot Shortage 2024: What Every Aspiring and Current Pilot Needs to Know The airline pilot shortage 2024 has reached…