Friday, January 16, 2009

It sometimes pays to be married to a pilot

Everybody is talking about yesterday's aviation action. If you haven't heard about the plane landing in the river, check out the news.

It's kind of fun to have A around the house with all his technical knowledge. I can ask questions like " hmm, do you think it was XYZ that caused the crash?" or "do you think it really went like this?". And aside from then having to endure a lecture about vertical stabilizers, de-icing procedures, the allowable time response for a flight attendant to pick up an emergency call from the cockpit or whatever else A deems necessary background information, I actually get a reasonable answer to my question. Then I can walk around feeling special because I have a better speculation than everybody else about what might have occurred.

We also had fun heckling the CNN news from our couch last night. They kept saying there were 'two crew members and three flight attendants". When did the flight attendants cease to be crew members? I wonder if someone from the flight attendant union gave them a call and set them straight. And then they committed the ultimate no-no (from a professional pilot's point of view) of having someone who is a private pilot commenting about what might have happened during an interview. As if the ability to fly a Cessna around on the weekend in vfr conditions would make someone eligible to comment on the standard operating procedures and emergency procedures for a commercial Airbus full of people.

I'm sure people in other professions have the same issues, right?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

When the Spanair crash happened in Madrid in August, the same thing was happening on Spanish television - they always have so-called experts on talking about what might have happened and the DH just rolls his eyes. We flew into Madrid the day after that crash and that was a little unsettling.

This does happen in other professions, too, for sure. I am a registered nurse, but I specialized in cardiology, so that's what I know the best. Random people are always asking me to comment on issues in other fields - like maternity or orthopedics, but I only know what I learned in school, which might not be much. Then again, I see a lot of nurses who will pose as experts on absolutely everything medical related! Just like the "weekend warriors" who get asked to comment on national tv. :)

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean! Kenny was saying the same thing about the news talking to some random person about what happened like they know what was really going on. It drives him nuts!

Speaking of people not knowing what they are talking about, I overheard a couple girls at school talking about sitting on the tarmac in JFK waiting to take off. She called it a "parking lot". I actually laughed out loud when she said that.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe they had a private pilot commenting on this on the NEWS!

Seriously?!

Right, I'm going to see if I can get a job as a financial economist in the news... Mind you, I might actually do a better job than the qualified guys right now. Need a better example. Hmm

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA... I feel the SAME way. I asked bf... "why didn't it sink?"- I guess it was weird to me that it actually floated for awhile- he went into a long explanation and I suddenly felt a lot smarter because I felt like i had insider info- as you mention. :)

My boyfriend has written two online newspapers in the last 2 weeks complaining about the innacuracy of their aviation stories and speculations. It drives him NUTS when people pretend to know things they are not qualified report on!

Anonymous said...

Yes, other professions have the same frustrations. Ben and I get all worked up about anything education related.

Thanks for sending the link to your blog! I'll enjoy keeping up on you and the fam. I hope the road your family is on to cancer recovery will be minamaly bumpy.

Danelle

leslie said...

Seriously, thanks for the laugh. I really needed that right now. I believe the same situation would have been here if I had asked dh. I can actually see the look on one's face when listening to

"vertical stabilizers, de-icing procedures, the allowable time response for a flight attendant to pick up an emergency call from the cockpit".

I have made the same face many a times.....:)