Evolution of love

Things Your Pilot Won’t Tell You

I've been struck by lightning twice.

Most pilots have. Airplanes are built to take it. You hear a big boom and see a big flash and that's it. You're not going to fall out of the sky. - Pilot for a regional carrier, Charlotte, North Carolina

If you're a nervous flier, book a morning flight.

The heating of the ground later causes bumpier air, and it's much more likely to thunderstorm in the afternoon. - Jerry Johnson, pilot, Los Angeles

The smoothest place to sit is often over or near the wing.

The bumpiest place to sit is in the back. A plane is like a seesaw. If you're in the middle, you don't move as much. Patrick Smith, pilot and author of Cockpit Confidential The general flow of air in any airplane is from front to back. So if you're really concerned about breathing the freshest possible air or not getting too hot, sit as close to the front as you can. Planes are generally warmest in the back. Tech pilot at a regional airline, Texas There is no safest place to sit. In one accident, the people in the back are dead; in the next, it's the people up front. John Nance, aviation safety analyst and retired airline captain, Seattle

People don't understand why they can't use their cell phones.

Well, what can happen is 12 people will decide to call someone just before landing, and I can get a false reading on my instruments saying that we are higher than we really are. Jim Tilmon, retired American Airlines pilot, Phoenix We don't make you stow your laptop because we're worried about electronic interference. It's about having a projectile on your lap. I don't know about you, but I don't want to get hit in the head by a MacBook going 200 miles per hour. And we're not trying to ruin your fun by making you take off your headphones. We just want you to be able to hear us if there's an emergency. Patrick Smith

It's updrafts, not turbulence, we really worry about.

A plane flies into a massive updraft, which you can't see on the radar at night, and it's like hitting a giant speed bump at 500 miles an hour. It throws everything up in the air and then down very violently. That's not the same as turbulence, which bounces everyone around for a while. John Nance, aviation safety analyst and retired airline captain, Seattle Pilots find it perplexing that so many people are afraid of turbulence. It's all but impossible for turbulence to cause a crash. We avoid turbulence not because we're afraid the wing is going to fall off but because it's annoying. Patrick Smith

I'm constantly under pressure to carry less fuel than I'm comfortable with.

Airlines are always looking at the bottom line, and you burn fuel carrying fuel. Sometimes if you carry just enough fuel and you hit thunderstorms or delays, then suddenly you're running out of gas and you have to go to an alternate airport. Captain at a major airline

There's no such thing as a water landing.

It's called crashing into the ocean. Pilot, South Carolina

Most people get sick after traveling not because of what they breathe but because of what they touch.

Always assume that the tray table and the button to push the seat back have not been wiped down, though we do wipe down the lavatory. Patrick Smith

Is traveling with a baby in your lap safe? No.

It's extremely dangerous. If there's any impact or deceleration, there's a good chance you're going to lose hold of your kid, and he becomes a projectile. But the government's logic is that if we made you buy an expensive seat for your baby, you'd just drive, and you're more likely to be injured driving than flying. Patrick Smith

There's a good reason for everything we ask you to do.

We ask you to put up the window shade so the flight attendants can see outside in an emergency, to assess if one side is better for an evacuation. It also lets light into the cabin if it goes dark and helps passengers get oriented if the plane flips or rolls over. Patrick Smith.