Originally Posted by
writermichelle
the truth about cabin air and autopilot
What is the "non-truth" about these two subjects that we would be trying to turn into a truth?
Cabin air is pressurized, heated or cooled (outside air temperature extremes of 120 in summer time Phoenix to 50 BELOW ZERO at cruise altitude), and then recirculated throughout the cabin.
Very little fresh air is let in because that impacts the efficiency of the aircraft (read that to mean would cost the airlines money) by having to pressurized and heat and cool that additional fresh air.
Pilots and cabin crew get to breath that air every moment of every day that they fly.
Autopilot????? It controls the aircraft automatically, with inputs from the pilots to tell the autopilot what they want it to do. It's used for 99% of any typical airline flight. Take off and most landings (99.99999%) are done by hand.
If it should fail, like most aircraft systems, there is usually a second one. If the autopilot should completely fail, the pilots can fly the plane much like you drive your car... with your hands.