Letters to the Editor
Patrick Smith
Published Letters: 47 Editor's Choice: 1
-
Re: Meandering at Airports (From the Author)
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For those readers who've mused that wandering around an airport these days is liable to get you detained or questioned, you're right. It happened to me, as described in a column I posted in February, 2006. For those who missed it....
Airports and photography:
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2006/02/10/askthepilot173/
- Patrick Smith
-
Re: '80s Music (From the Author)
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To the reader who referred to the Jam as a "semi-obscure British punk band"..... I, but, er, uh, buh, aaaaaagh.
Not to sound like the 40 year-old fart that I am, but you, along with anybody else who doesn't know the Jam, needs to start by downloading the song "Going Underground" to get a sense of how good rock music used to be.
Not that I was ever that much of a Jam fan, but a handful of their songs are classics.
Incidentally, what directly inspired this two-part aviation glossary was a similar, if almost entirely tongue-in-cheek glossary I composed for a fanzine -- my own, self-published and self-indulgent fanzine (as most are) -- many years ago: I called it "A Glossary of 1980s Punk Rock Buzzwords." It was submitted as part of the last column, actually, but my editor found it a bit too gratuitous and snipped it out. And she was probably right.
But it was also quite funny, I thought, provided the reader has at least *some* inkling about '80s indie scene. If you'd like to see it, shoot me an email.
- Patrick Smith
-
Re: Screening Standards (From the Author)
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Writes David, below:
>> The solution is to relax our scrutiny of the crews and passengers to that of the ramp workers. Please try to mention that in your columns. We need LESS government involvement <<
I have advocated exactly that in column past. This time around I might not have articulated it very well, but I agree that increasing the *physical* scrutiny of caterers and cleaners would serve no useful purpose.
Crews, for their part, should be able to bypass the x-ray nonsense entirely, and most of what passengers endure is almost as pointless.
- Patrick Smith
-
Guilt Trip is Right
[Read the article: You are now free to pollute about the country]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The part that jumps out at me is this:
<< Flying still makes up a very small percentage of greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, just 1.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity each year come from air travel.... >>
I realize that aircraft spew their emissions into the upper troposphere, which makes them possibly more harmful than other pollutants, but we're talking about less than TWO PERCENT of all greenhouse emissions! What about the other 98 percent? Two perent of the problem gets 90 perent of the press.
Hating air travel is already too easy, and this just passes the buck. If we're that interested in cutting emissions, we'd start with our driving and building habits.
Patrick Smith (Your nonbiased "Ask the Pilot" columnist)
-
From the Author, re: TSA Alert, Reverse Thrust, Comair Crash
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To answer a few of your posts:
1.In his anti-Muslim rant, the never incorrigible Golden Boy writes: “Patrick runs like mad from this topic - feel free to join him for as long as you can.”
Actually I’ve written more columns on airport security and terrorism than any other topics. By “run like mad” he means only that I refuse to agree with his point of view. As for the recent TSA alert, reader GeeBee is correct that I’m loath to do yet another story that essentially repeats the same things I’ve said numerous times before. He writes: “...they detained that lady because of suspicions about what she was carrying, but we never heard what happened to the person, for example, who had wires sticking in a block of cheese.”
My thoughts exactly. Let me get this straight: people have been caught smuggling alleged bomb components through airport security? Oh really? Who are these people, and where are they now? They must have names. Were they not arrested? Were they shuttled off to a secret prison? Did the guards simply confiscate their rigged cheese and let them pass? How can it be that potential terrorists disappear into the media ether like that? The story makes no sense. The tail *is* wagging the dog, if you ask me.
2. Jared2 writes, “I find it unbelievable that airplanes are allowed to fly with inoperative thrust reversers. How can this be allowed?”
Reverse thrust provides a relatively small portion of a plane’s stopping power. But for good measure, when a reverser is inoperative, penalties apply to ensure enough runway remains. In the TAM accident, the reverser malfunction is still unconfirmed.
3. Somebody expressed surprise that I didn’t reference last year’s Comair incident in Lexington, Kentucky. I wrote a Salon cover story on the crash shortly after it happened: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/08/28/plane_crash/
- Patrick Smith
-
Re: so, what *is* the issue ?
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]GB,
The information you present below is very interesting -- and for the most part, public record. I already wrote about the impertinent imams causing a ruckus at MSP, and admitted they had it coming. But I fail to see how the rest of it relates to anything I might write about in a column. In other words, what's your point? What is it you want me to discuss? I'm confused.
As for the question about V2.... Achieving V1 more or less guarantees you will make it into the air, and gives you obstruction clearance at the end of the runway (unless there is some physical obstruction -- for example, blown tires or other impediment -- to stop you). From there, you will accelerate to V2 (or higher) in order to climb away. Once you are in the air, assuming you've rotated on proper speed, and pitch, there is no reason you should not reach V2.
-
Re: Just Curious
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]>>> How much did you pay for that $334 1946 Aer Lingus ticket? <<<
It was American Airlines, not Aer Lingus. I don't know, a friend of mine (plug: Dave Blakney, guitarist of local band Black Clouds) snagged it at a flea market. Knowing Dave, seeing how he *gave* it to me, it must not have been more than a buck or two.
Here's a link to a scan of the inside portion:
www.askthepilot.com/aacoupon1946.html
I also have the outer jacket. It says "route of the Flagships," and has a drawing of a DC-4 or a DC-6 on it.
Patrick Smith
-
Re: It Can Be Done?
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Writes East2West,
>>> At Reagan Washington National Airport, for example, the airport is operating at flight capacity, or very near it, and there are currently limitations on the number of flight slots available.<<<
Right, and Reagan National is a total nightmare. 90 minute ground stops in clear weather. Same at LGA, which is slot controlled. Same at JKF, also slot controlled.
The slot idea is somewhat useful, but it is not implemented properly. For one thing, slot programs only work if all flights are leaving and arriving exactly on time; otherwise, the slots from the previous hour carry into the next hour, and a backlog starts to build. You end up with the same mess you'd have at any airport, regardless of slot assignments.
You would need to reduce the number of available slots during and around peak hours -- and that would not be an easy measure to push through. Adjusting landing fees based on aircraft size is another commonly submitted idea, but as I mentioned in an earlier column, with fares so low carriers can, at least for now, pass along the extra cost in order to keep their RJs in the mix.
Patrick Smith
-
Re: Airport Acoustics and CNN
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"...and trying to close out the incessant chatter from the blaring "CNN Headline News" and the hideous acoustics..."
It's CNN *Airport* News to be exact. I feel your pain Keiran. And I'm sad to report that my "TV-B-Gone" airport television shutter-offer has ceasead functioning.
I did a column partly about airport noise here:
What's the matter with airports?
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2006/04/07/askthepilot180/
And you can read here if you're interested in a "TV-B-Gone" unit....
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2007/01/12/askthepilot216/
Patrick Smith