A general description of air travel... (Airlines - Comments & Tips)

Member Name: zOOm

Product:	Airlines - Comments & Tips
Date:	01/04/01 (689 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick and getting more and more comfortable...

Disadvantages: Sitting too long, cramped, dry air, anxiety, etc...

I have been travelling on aeroplanes since I was 6 months old and I think I have more "flight time" than some of the flight attendants! OK, enough vanity, here's some general information about flights, most of you will already know about these but hopefully you’ll still find it useful... A little warning that this is a long one, but I think it’s worth reading.

Airport:

Why do they tell you to get there 2 hours before your flight? This is because there are lots of flights to organise at an airport and if the airlines have all their passengers ready to leave on time then they can blame the airport. An airline pays a lot of money for a plane that’s staying at an airport. They are very anxious to make sure they do everything right to get out of there as quickly as possible. If a passenger is late or is not boarding, they will have to take out his/her luggage from the aircraft (this is for safety reasons). This can take up to half an hour on larger aircraft.

What delays a flight:
1 – Technical stuff: mechanical faults (each aircraft is visually inspected before take off).
2 – Operational stuff: This could be anything from the cleaning crews taking too long (every flight is cleaned before a takeoff), airplane refuelling being delayed or even passengers or the aircrew being late.
3 – Circumstances beyond control: This is usually when the weather at your destination airport is really bad or the air traffic in that area is so much that it is better for you to stay on the ground. (Each control tower can only handle a certain number of flights and they will hold the rest on the ground till they have available space).


On board:

The general setup is that there is 32 inches between economy class seats (back to back that is) in human terms this means if you are 6 foot tall, there is about 1 inch between your knees and the seat in front. Pretty uncomfortable for long fl
ights. On long-haul flights some airlines might give you a little more space. You'll usually get "snacks" in flights within Europe. For long-haul flights (across the Atlantic or the Pacific for example) you’ll get proper meals (with a selection of at least two) and have access to your own TV screen and a few channels of movies.

Business class seats within Europe are setup with 36 inches between the seats hence there is some more space for you to move around. The seats are also wider. On long-haul flights the business class seats vary from airline to airline. (BA recently introduced "almost flat" seats for business class to New York). You get hot meals served no matter the distance you are flying and in long-haul flights some airlines (such as Singapore Airlines) will provide you with your own video and a library of films to choose from, your TV screen is also larger compared to economy class.

First class in European flights is not that much different than business class. Your seats are wider but that is where the difference ends. For long haul flights you actually get your own space where your seat turns into a bed at the touch of a button...

If you are sitting at the very back of a large aircraft you will suffer more from motion. This is because the tail of the aircraft moves about much more than the centre.


Safety Instructions:

Listen to these carefully if you don’t fly too often. They seem to be just general information and you wonder about their usefulness in an emergency situation, but it is too late to regret not listening to it if you ever do find yourself in an emergency situation.

I feel the main points to note are:

- The emergency landing position

- How to do up your life west

- How to open the exit doors (you’ll find this on the safety card) – note, you’ll notice the pilot say “Cabin crew, doors to automatic an
d cross check”. What this means is that the doors are now in automatic mode. Hence, if anyone opens the doors after this stage the escape slides will inflate automatically. In most aircraft the escape slides become a life raft in case of water landing.

- Why do they tell you to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others? Firstly general info, the human brain is capable of coping without oxygen for 6 minutes. If the cabin pressure drops and you try to fit the oxygen mask on to someone else first (your child for example) you might actually pass out. Then who will put on your oxygen mask? But if you put on yours first, then you can help anyone else that you need to and they will still be OK.



Take-off:

Take off is the most exciting part of the flight. Most aircraft have to reach about 300km/h (about 190mph) before they can take off. Hence the pilot has to give full power to get to a safe takeoff speed. This is when you are pinned to your seat and really feel the forces on you.

For those that don't know, the sections of the wing that slide down are called flaps and how much they come down depends on a few different things. The reason they do come down is that they provide more lift. Which means the aircraft can take off easier. If they are down all the way, you know that you are flying in an aircraft that is fully loaded. The heavier the load (not the plane itself) the more they will be down.

If you are sitting around the mid section you'll hear noises almost immediately after takeoff. No need to panic, that's the landing gear being retracted. And the whining noises later on are the flaps going back up.


In flight:

On short distance flights you don’t notice the effects too much, but if you are flying long distance you should note a few things.

The air within the cabin of an aircraft is at least 50% recycled. This is done to keep some moisture in the a
ir. The other 50% comes from close to the engines hence it is warmer. In any case the air inside the aeroplane is dry and you’ll start noticing this after about 4 hours of flight. Your nose and mouth starts drying up and your eyes go red. If you normally wear contact lenses, don’t wear them on long-haul flights or make sure you have enough “refresher” drops.

Try not to sit still for too long in the aircraft. Get up and walk about the plane to get the blood circulating. If you are not allergic to aspirin, you should take one before a long flight. This is recommended because it apparently “thins” the blood.

One more warning, I don’t know if there are people out there that do this at home but on an aeroplane NEVER flush a toilet while you are still sitting on it!

Try not to drink too much alcohol on an aeroplane. Although the temptation might be to make the most of this opportunity for free alcohol, you should remember that alcohol normally dehydrates the body anyway AND you’ll get drunk much quicker while you are flying. This has to do the with the effects of flying on the body.

Seatbelts. You should always wear them! I know they get a bit tight and uncomfortable but loosen them a little if you have to and still wear them. I don’t mean to scare you but it is a fact that in some bad weather situations an aeroplane may fall a few hundred feet in a few seconds. The plane and the pilot are capable of recovering from these but if you are not wearing your seatbelt you’ll hit the ceiling of the cabin very hard most likely do quite a lot of damage to yourself. Hence, please wear your seatbelt.

Unless there is exceptional circumstances, your flight will be mostly controlled by the autopilot. Do you trust it? You should, almost all jet fighters, all the space flights (satellites), rocket launches and even the International Space Station are controlled by autopilot. But I s
till like knowing that there is a human to take the controls if necessary.


Landing:

If you are flying into a busy airport (like Heathrow – the world’s busiest apparently) you’ll most likely have to circle the city a few times before you can land. You might notice that the engines are slowing down, speeding up and slowing down again. Don’t worry. The autopilot on an aircraft is capable of controlling this circling and hence tries to make sure that the aeroplane is travelling at a constant speed. This means accelerating when going against wind and vice versa.

It is a regulation that for safety reasons every aircraft has to have enough fuel to circle the airport and also be able to attempt to land at least twice. What do I mean by that? Sometimes (in bad weather conditions) it is possible that the pilot will attempt to land the aircraft but realise that he/she won’t be able to make it (either gone off to the side, overshot the runway, etc.). In a situation like that, the pilot will have to increase the power to the engines, get back up to a safe altitude and attempt the landing again. This has only happened to me once and although it is a bit tense, the pilots are fully trained for this and the aircraft are designed for it too.

The flaps usually come down fully during landing to enable the plane to land at a very slow speed. When you land, you’ll hear a huge roar! This is not the wheels scraping against the tarmac. This is the sound of the engines going into what they call “reverse thrust”. If you are sitting close to the engines you’ll see that the cover on the engine opens up. By doing this, the air that is flowing through the engine is reversed, hence instead of pushing the plane forwards the air now flows backwards (towards the front of the plane rather than the back) and tries to slow the plane down. You’ll also see the airbrakes fully open on top of the wings. Th
e wheel brakes are the last resort to slow the plane down. This is why aircraft can land at pouring rain and not worry about skidding across the runway like a car would in a similar situation.

Landing in bad weather – I know it is worrying to land in bad weather, the one I hate the most is fog. How can the pilot know where to land when I can’t even see the tip of the wing???? The solution to this problem is again electronic. Planes are equipped with something called the Instrumental Landing System (ILS) and through the use of this system the tower is capable of guiding the plane down to a safe landing. If landing is at all not possible at that airport, your plane will be diverted to another airport for safe landing.


Aircraft:

I usually care about which aircraft I fly in, some people might say it doesn't make much difference but to me it does. You'll find that most European airlines (with the exception of the British ones) mainly use Airbus and most other airlines use Boeing... So what's the difference? I could give you some technical differences but that's not why I'm writing this op.

I have flown in most types of aircraft and the three things you notice are:

1- Noise
2- Cabin pressure
3- Comfort

Lets start from number 3. The larger the aircraft the more comfortable the journey. Why? It gets tossed about by the wind a lot less! The largest aeroplane at the moment is the Boeing 747 (aka "Jumbo"). What do I like about this one? It has 4 engines (more safety), it can fly really high (up to 42000 feet compared with 38000 for most others) which means it can avoid most of the turbulence.

Number 2: Cabin pressure. The cabin of an aircraft has to be pressurised for you to be able to breathe normally. You'll normally notice this during takeoff and landing. I find that most Boeing aircraft are better at this than Airbus. For some reason I suffer earache
s when I fly certain types of Airbus aircraft (in particular the A300 - the A310 and the A340 seem OK). There is no remedy unfortunately... They tell you to chew a chewing gum or keep your mouth slightly open or yawn, but until the pressure stabilises, you'll suffer a bit.

Number 1: Actually I will generalise this a bit. When you sit after the engines you get more noise than when you sit before them. Noise is more noticeable in older aircraft. The newer engines are more quieter (although how can you quieten down a jet engine?) I find that the Airbus aircraft are usually quieter. Although the Boeing 757, 767 and the 777 are also very good.

Well, that’s it. Hopefully this helps you a little. Have a safe journey….

Summary: