Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition] Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DJ6FVGU | Format: PDF, EPUB
Download Epub Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections Download books file now Download Epub Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link
For millions of people, travel by air is a confounding, uncomfortable, and even fearful experience. Patrick Smith, airline pilot and author of the Web's popular "Ask the Pilot" column, separates fact from fallacy and tells you everything you need to know:
- How planes fly, and a revealing look at the men and women who fly them
- Straight talk on turbulence, pilot training, and safety
- The real story on congestion, delays, and the dysfunction of the modern airport
- The myths and misconceptions of cabin air and cockpit automation
- Terrorism in perspective, and a provocative look at security
- Airfares, seating woes, and the pitfalls of airline customer service
- The colors and cultures of the airlines we love to hate
Cockpit Confidential covers not only the nuts and bolts of flying, but also the grand theater of air travel, from airport architecture to inflight service to the excitement of travel abroad. It's a thoughtful, funny, at times deeply personal look into the strange and misunderstood world of commercial flying.
Direct download links available for Download Epub Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition]
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 11 hours and 53 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Tantor Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: July 8, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DJ6FVGU
Expecting an update of Patrick Smith's earlier book, Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel, I was surprised to see a completely different book. Yes, he still answers questions that passengers are curious about, such as how dangerous is turbulence, and what is in the air supply in the cabin, but he goes into many other topics that are of interest to people who enjoy flying. He discusses airline logos and liveries (the paint jobs on the planes) and airline names.
Smith is often pedantic and always opinionated, and it all makes for an entertaining book. He has some definite thoughts about the service on airlines, which is a little surprising, since he is a pilot for a major U.S. airline (but he doesn't say which one), and he also has some comments about passengers, which are usually less strident, such as his puzzlement over why sudoku is so popular. Just don't get him started on airport security.
One important reason Smith's book may appeal to more people than a straightforward question and answer book would, is that Smith is not only an industry professional, but he's often a passenger, traveling for fun, so he knows what it's like to sit in coach. This dual point of view, which is apparently not very common among airline employees, many of whom don't care to travel on their own time or dime, gives Smith more perspective, so he's not just the lecturer here, he knows your travelin' pain.
Not only does he travel, he enjoys airports, flying, and seeing new places. He intersperses his question and answer sections with musings on travel.
I'm appalled at some of the negative comments strewn across the lower-star end of these reviews. One person complains that this book has done nothing to alleviate her fear of flying. Well, d'oh, the subhead below the title is NOT "How to Overcome Your Fear of Flying."
And for those who complained that this book contained "stuff anyone could Google" -- well, I can Google the words "rat king" yet not particularly want to read a book about it.
What people don't seem to realize is that Smith -- he TOTALLY underplays his standings as an airline pilot, by the way -- is not someone who flies short-haul pleasure craft for a living, but someone who pilots hundreds of passengers around in Boeing 757s and 777s: massive planes that are the state-of-the-art in aviation technology.
Of course, he could pen an entire tome about how the flight deck is laid out, why you need to use the NAV button sometimes and what you do when you don't get "three green," or discuss the redundant hydraulic systems or precisely how the pilots balance the fuel weights between the various tanks, or just what the checklist consists of on a long-haul flight to Shanghai. After all, this is not a retired pilot recalling his "glory years" but an active pilot who may well have YOU on board your next flight, as his passenger.
And he steps down from this lofty perch -- or rather, what COULD be a lofty perch -- and humanizes flying in such a way that says "You see? We're not Mystery Men with Salt and Pepper Hair who say "Vector, Victor," and "Roger, Roger." We don't have wild parties at the hotels with the "stews" or get slam-drunk before flights.
Book Preview
Download Epub Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections Download
Please Wait...