From The Cockpit

From The Cockpit

Many people who are fearful fliers wonder whats goes on in the cockpit. Many people don't understand flying yet alone what goes on in the cockpit. I believe understanding what goes on behind the scenes will help you toward your goal of overcoming your fear of flying. For starters, pilots fly a schedule called a line. A line holder schedule is for a month so you fly with the same crew for a month. Its important that you get along with those other crew members because you are married to them for one month. The pilots generally meet in flight operations were they check the weather, call their dispatcher for a briefing, then the captain briefs the other crew members on the weather, passenger loads, any special needs passengers, maintenance items, security, & usually an encouragement to the other crew members to speak up if they see any safety concerns. Then the pilots & cabin crew break off for their separate preflight checks.

First, the pilots look for the maintenance logbook for that aircraft. They are checking first to make sure that the book & aircraft numbers match up. Then they check the book for any open maintenance write ups. An open write up is anything pertaining to maintenance of the aircraft that has been wrote up as broken. Once something is wrote up, the aircraft is essentially grounded into a mechanic fixes the item & resigns the book as ok, or a pilot defer the item to be fix later providing its not critical to safety. Pilots deferring a maintenance item is refer to as a MEL (minimum equipment list) which is approved by the FAA. The purpose of the MEL is allow airlines the options to delay or currently fix any non critical item so as to avoid any unnecessary delays. Usually an item could be deferred as long as its not critical to flight safety, & theirs another redundant or backup system to rely upon. The items can be defer anywhere from 3 days to 120 days. To give an example, Lets say you plan to take a road trip somewhere & certainly discover your cruise control in your car is not working. Well, are you going to cancel your trip? Off course not! You could still drive your car safely without cruise control. Its not critical!. The important thing to remember is that its the FAA & aircraft manufactures that determined what goes on the MEL list, & not the airlines.

Now that the aircraft maintenance book checks out, the Captain & First Officer would do their own separate preflights. Usually the Captain checks the exterior aircraft & does systems checks to make sure everything is working from generators, fuel pumps, to warning systems like wind shear alert ,& stall test. All these checks usually takes about 10-15 minutes. The First officer usually does the aircraft performance stuff that details the max weight the aircraft can takeoff at, calculating speeds for takeoffs,weight & balance,getting their takeoff clearances, setting up the navigation routing & getting current weather at the field.

Meanwhile, the flight attendants are doing their checks that include checking oxygen bottles, fire extinguishers, medical equipment &, safety. Hopefully, by giving you some insight behind the scenes this will help you with your comfort level & to overcome your fear of flying. All these training professionals are working hard behind the scenes to keep you safe so you could focus more on being a better passenger by giving up control & trusting the industry.