Ask the Pilot Book

Ask the Pilot Author's Note and Acknowledgments Introduction: The Painter's Brush

1. Things About Wings and Why Knots?

Airfleets For Neophytes
Airfoiled—the art of wings and keeping aloft · A primer on moving parts · Aerobatics in a 747? · Turbines and turbofans—an intro to jets and props · No engines? Can we glide to a landing? · Boeing versus Airbus · Too hot to handle, too high to fly? · Those white lines—clouds or conspiracy?

2. Turbulence for Tyros: Windshear, Weather, and Elements of Unease

Up to Speed—The Promise and Peril of Concorde
Turbulence and windshear · Pressurization—how, why, and what if it's lost? · How can ice crash a plane? · The truth about toilet water · Are we flying with broken parts? · Aging planes—how old is too old?

3. What Goes Up . . . Takeoffs, Landings, and the Mysterious Between

Idlewild, Roanoke, and Timbuktu Too
Into the wind and backwards to boot · Takeoff trauma and the climbout cutback · V-what? · A runway nightmare—fact or fiction? · From whence the aborted takeoff? For what the aborted landing? · Foggy notions and crooked landings—finding the ground · Those mysteriously missing thunderstorms · SCROD, WOPPO, BOSOX, and Gardner• The biggest and busiest airports · To HEL and back

4. Are You Experienced? The Awe and Oddity of Piloting

The Exploding Toilet And Other Embarrassments
Labor and loathing—the myth and mirth of pilot salaries · Pilots and copilots—what's the difference and what do they do? · The workday commute—New Zealand to Atlanta? · Where are the women? · Secrets of skill · Are you irrelevant? · Is there a future in pilotless planes? · Up, locked, and loaded—guns in the cockpit · Flight deck fatigue—are the pilots sleeping?

5. Life in the Cabin

Terrorism, Tweezers, and Terminal Madness
Class warfare: Where am I sitting and what's the difference? · Do pilots cut airflow to save fuel? Do they reduce oxygen to keep me docile? · Cell phones, laptops, and headphones · Those damn dings · Are we really cleared to land? · The briefing babble · Tray tables, window shades, safety belts, and seatbacks · The skinny on seats

6. . . . Must Come Down: Disasters, Mishaps, and Fatuous Flights of Fancy

En Route Angst And The Psychology of Fear
The ten worst crashes in history · Those dangerous foreign airlines? · Cockpits and culture · Fallacies and flotation—getting to know your life jacket · Crackpots and conspiracy · The true and false of shoulder-fired missiles · Crewless catastrophe—can a passenger land the plane? · Soft walls and other lousy ideas

7. To Fly To Serve

Mourning the Cheat Line
The oldest, biggest, best, and worst carriers · What, no Africa? · Small countries, big airlines · Red-eye rationale · A code-share primer · The world's longest flight · Flight numbers, Shamrocks, Clippers, and Cacti