Thanks for clarifying a number of points for the non-pilot public. Cheers from a fellow pilot!

Thanks for coming over to the Garrison Keillor thread, Capt. Smith, to discuss the TSA. A visit from someone with actual information is always appreciated (well, by me at least.)

Thanks for clarifying the "cutting engines after takeoff" myth. My mother told me that one about 30 years ago, and although I took it with a grain of salt, her description was vivid enough that forever after, every time the engines backed off after take-off I would start to wonder if we'd soon be sailing through the skies in bone-chilling silence.

As an aside, though, I can't help but assume such urban myths contribute to robust in-flight cocktail sales...

Landing at TGU is a definite E-ticket. Get a window seat on the left-hand side!

This weeks column brought back some great memories of my time in Africa doing subcontract work for UTA in the late 80's. Mostly Western Africa. Flying around there was really different from North America back then. Never ran into runways with lava on them though.

I once had an evacuation due to a tire fire, where stairs were being used at the exits and the ground personnel were sending passengers back UP the stairs for their passports.

There was one airport, I can't remember where- where the locals used the runway as a method of getting from one place to another. No fences to speak of. When a plane was arriving or departing, they simply got off and walked beside the runway. Imagine landing and seeing people walking at the edge of the runway with shopping, carrying babies, children tagging along behind.

There was little preventing anyone from either going through luggage on the tarmac, or simply walking off with your bag either. People would constantly be asking us for drinks and other goodies from the tarmac as we were parked. A very thin security force would shoo them away, but they never stayed away for long.

I'll spare you the details about bug infested food or latex gloves being issued so that cabin crew could scoop poop left by passengers who didn't know how to use a western toilet because they'd never seen an airplane before, much less get on one and be confronted by something with blue water.

We once deadheaded from Abidjan to Conakry in a small prop job. Our inflight safety demonstration was done by the co-pilot as he yelled back into the cabin through a doorless cockpit "we're leaving so everyone fasten your seat belt!".

What amazed me is that my own company always managed to screw up. We'd arrive somewhere in Europe without hotel or onward deadhead reservations, or arrangements for payment for hotels/food/fuel having been made, or be left stranded or forgotten entirely somewhere and being told by crew scheduling "find your own way home" (I kid you not)

UTA however, managed, in deepest Africa, to get us from the airport to the hotel, sometimes via a bus, a boat, and then another bus, and once involving a helicopter - all without a hitch or delay. Which was greatly appreciated by those of us that were a little rattled being dropped off in the middle of nowhere wearing our polyester finest, next to a rickety dock on some African river and the bus driver leaving saying "someone'll be along shortly".

Hi Patrick,

I am travelling quite a lot by air in Europe. The most thrilling approach I witnessed has been to Isafjördur, Iceland. The plane (an Icelandair Fokker 50 flying from Keflavik) took just the same approach as you can see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/v/QuXRiU1T8pg&hl=en

Locals told me that you never know whether the two flights per day will be possible, sometimes you have to wait for a week until the next plane may land.

Nice landing, is'nt it?

Wolfgang

Calling it Myanmar is giving tacit acceptance to the current regime, which renamed the country.

That seems an apt screen name as your head appears to be filled with fog. Why in the world would you post that in the column about air travel? Are you just spamming? Sad.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=goma+congo&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.320439,63.105469&ie=UTF8&ll=-1.660934,29.237452&spn=0.00607,0.007703&t=k&z=17

Or

http://snipurl.com/26swo [maps_google_com]

Here you can see the lava overflowing on the runway. You can also see how close the houses are to the airport.

Cayman Airways shouldn't be on the list of developing country airlines. Grand Cayman Island is full of rich people. Their GDP per capita is among the top 10 in the world...

but isn't that runway in Boston (the one where they have to make a left turn after takeoff to avoid flying over South Boston) 22R, rather than 4R? 4R and 4L (22R the other way) take you north toward Revere.

In the 727 which I fly, we do in fact reduce thrust right after takeoff in order to reduce noise around airports (usually around 1000 ft. above the ground, which usually happens within 30 seconds after leaving the ground). It is a power setting that is still sufficient to climb, just at a lower performance. Also at that 1000 ft altitude, just as we are reducing power, we shallow out the climb in order to accelerate so that we can start bringing the flaps up. It is common at this point to go from a climb of several thousand feet per minute, to around 500 feet per minute. I can see where the myth has simply confused what is actually a drama of changing engine sounds, pitch, climb rate, acceleration, and flap noises with something more easily explainable like a full shutdown of engines.

... you say the difference between a cat I and II ILS landing is the difference between "about a quarter mile" and 1200 feet, but a quarter mile is 1,320 feet - that's all of a 120 foot difference. From a very rudimentary googling it looks like Cat I is more on the order of 1/2 mile to 1800ft of runway visibility.