Subject:  Re: "Life in the Skies" |
Author:
Lim Khoy Hing
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Date Posted: 01:35:59 08/10/13 Sat
Author Host/IP: NoHost/175.136.52.131
In reply to:
Ray
's message, "Re: "Life in the Skies"" on 20:13:12 08/09/13 Fri
Thank you Grasshopper and Ray for your compliments on my forthcoming book.
At the moment, it is only available in soft copies and has 254 pages but we are also planning to have it in e-Book via Kindle, Amazon.com, Kobo and maybe Apple iBook.
Unfortunately, very limited copies (only 4) are placed on each flight as AirAsia Megastore is not very sure if it would sell well. To buy it on line is even more pricy. I found out it would cost 3.7 times more because the shipping charges is RM106.00 to Australia. This would bring the cost to RM 106 + 39 = RM145.00!
The best is to buy it at the LCCT Kiosk or at some of the major book store in the Malaysia. Anyway, the publisher has promised to deliver the books on the 9th of September 2013. Only from then on would the books be available.
For your benefit, you can read half a sample of Chapter 1 (sorry, the formatting is distorted during the cut and paste process) Enjoy!
CHAPTER 1
THIS IS HOW WE DO IT
Introducing safe flying
How much does an average person know about air travel?
Most people get their impression of flying and of pilots from Hollywood movies. One popular show was Flight, starring
Academy Award winner Denzel Washington, which became
a critically acclaimed box-office blockbuster. Quite a few
readers wrote in with questions about the film, so I was
compelled to watch it.
Flight turned out to be a highly entertaining action flick
about a pilot who crash-lands his plane with 102 passengers
on board. He saves the majority of them and is hailed as a
hero, but all is not well as he comes under the scrutiny of
the National Transportation Safety Board when tests reveal
heavy usage of alcohol and drugs.
The movie opens with a scene of the captain with a
rather naked flight attendant. Scenes like this reinforce
public perception that the crew are often promiscuous.
Readers frequently ask if it’s possible for airline pilots to have successful marriages despite travelling to exotic destinations with good-looking cabin crew.
Pilots are human beings, just like anyone else. Some are
loyal and others are unfaithful. Some have excellent and
lasting marriages while others have less successful ones.
Admittedly, there are more opportunities to stray in this
profession and there’s no need to lie about working late or
explain the whiff of women’s perfume on the uniform. After
all, flying around the world with pretty flight attendants is all part of the job.
Wives of pilots have asked me about signs of infidelity.
Far from being a marriage counsellor, I can only relay general observations about such issues in the aviation industry. A straying spouse may become more vain or play hide-and-seek with his partner. An unfaithful husband may suddenly turn into a big spender or a master at arranging his schedule. Sometimes, he may seem edgy on the phone or inefficient in bed.
But I’m no relationship expert so please do not take my
words as gospel. If you suspect something amiss, it would
be advisable to seek a marriage counsellor and not use the
points here to confirm infidelity.
What the movie is really about
But I would like to think that Flight is really a movie about air safety, and it gives me an opportunity to present my views about it and the reality of a pilot’s life. Take, for instance, alcohol consumption by airline pilots – the movie’s depiction of an alcoholic captain sniffing oxygen in a cockpit prior to his flight may lead some to wonder if this actually happens.
In reality, pilots have strict rules that they must abide by. Oxygen inhalation inside the cockpit to clear a hangover is not a standard practice.
Strangers working together
Due to the scheduling system that rosters flight crew for the scores of flights the airline operates throughout the world, it’s impossible for one pilot to know another very well. There are times where the two have never even met prior to the actual flight. How then can they hope to cooperate and cope well, especially in emergencies? It comes down to flight trainers, who ensure that strict standard operating procedures are adhered to at all times. Even standard phrases for challenges and responses made by the captain and co-pilot to each other are used to avoid confusion.
After the captain, we often hear the term ‘co-pilot’ but
the more appropriate salutation would be ‘first officer’, as
this individual is second-in-command should the captain be
incapacitated. The first officer is therefore trained to handle the aircraft safely in any eventuality, especially when the pilot in command is in no condition to fly safely.
To begin with, the pre-flight briefing reminds pilots to
review threats and error management so that their flight will progress safely. These days, a first officer is trained to make a report directly or anonymously if he or she feels the captain has compromised the safety of the flight. The smelling of alcohol would definitely be a red flag. So, a chronic drinker like the captain in Flight wouldn’t last long in his career. Even if there are a few co-pilots who decide not to report him, there’ll be others who will.
Respect the weather
In the movie, the captain takes off in heavy rain. This is not normal practice. A cautious captain would wait for the rain to stop or at least turn into a light drizzle. This is because there are many hazards that come with torrential rain, such as reduced visibility or increased risk of running off the runway in the event of an aborted take-off.
Similarly, in an attempt to avoid severe turbulence in a
thunderstorm, the captain in the movie increases speed to
the maximum limit. While this probably adds drama to the
story, it is contrary to real world operating procedures where a pilot would actually reduce speed, just like how you would slow down if you had to drive over a pothole. Planes are not structurally designed to fly at high-speed in turbulence.
The captain is a bad-ass hero who can fly
upside down. Not .
There’s more added drama that you don’t get in real-life
which is shown in the movie: The captain is arrogant and
condescending and the first officer is meek, being frightened and clueless at times. This is not how an actual pilot would behave and only reinforces the myth that the co-pilot is an apprentice who merely assists the captain. A real co-pilot is a well-trained first officer who is assertive and competent.
Even though stoned out of his mind, the captain in
Flight skilfully manoeuvres his plane in an uncontrolled dive and resorts to an unorthodox flight procedure – inverting the plane – to save the day. This led one reader to ask if a commercial airliner can actually fly upside down. Yes, it is possible to fly inverted momentarily on certain planes but not on a modern airliner as there are mechanisms that protect it against such a manoeuvre during normal flights.
On the Airbus, it is not possible to bank beyond 67 degrees
left or right, so it is impossible to turn the plane upside
down. However, when a plane is not in the ‘normal law’ –
usually after some technical failure – this bank protection is lost. Only then is it possible to invert a commercial plane temporarily. To date, no pilot has ever done so intentionally during an actual commercial flight, only in simulator training and once, during a demonstration flight, on a Boeing 707.
The heroic protagonist in the movie saves a diving plane
by turning it upside down, before rolling it the right-side up again, in time for a fairly successful crash landing in a field.
Even the most experienced and competent (not to mention sober) pilot might find such a manoeuvre next to
impossible to pull off safely. But real life just isn’t interesting enough for a Hollywood movie
While Flight is a rivetting and suspenseful piece of
entertainment, if these flying myths aren’t dispelled, even the most hardened of air travellers may start to worry about the flight crew, their competency and state of mind.
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