I just want to know if your article will be printed in the Reader's Digest Large Print edition. You know, for all of us old folks sitting in Coach.

Sorry for not being more clear about my credentials. I'm a freelance writer, and I've done a lot of work for Reader's Digest. Here's my home page: Michelle Crouch. To see some of my work, click on "Michelle's clips." Since the administrators removed my e-mail address from my previous posts, please contact me through the link on my site. Thanks.

1. Pilots are smarter than your average bear.

2. The airplanes we fly are not bricks. If the engines stop, it doesn't mean we are going to fall out of the sky. It just means we are landing sooner than scheduled.

3. About passenger's fear of flying (and dying whilst flying): If it's your time to go, it's your time to go. It doesn't matter if you are driving to work, sitting at home, or traveling in an airplane. So, fear not, we are going to do our very best to keep you alive.

4. Unfortunately for #3, if it's our time to go, it's your time to go too. ;)

Hey everyone,
I love the suggestions from Capt. Carl, FlyJSH and Puckhead (the rest of you had me LOL) and I'd like to use some of them verbatim, but my editor requires me to actually communicate with you. Can you guys please use the link on my home page to email me a phone number so I can be in touch? As I said before, I don't need to use your name in the story, just confirm your existence and/or experience. My deadline is tomorrow! Thanks.

Fifty things you pilot does not tell you...

1. We have a rope we can use to climb out our windows if things get bad. Unfortunately at 39,000 feet, it does not reach all the way to the ground.
2. Flying at about 500 miles an hour, if we were to stop suddenly, the dentures of the old man sitting behind you would fly out of his mouth and probably hit you.
3. The only people more unhappy than the people crowded in the airplanes are the flight attendants and pilots.
4. Pilots have very high opinions of themselves, usually higher than they fly.
5. Pilots keep the cockpit door locked and no one is allowed in because sometimes they fly around without their clothes.
6. When the pilot makes anouncements, he thinks he sounds like James Earl Jones, when he actually sounds like Don Knotts.
7. Pilots love flying, they just would rather fly by themselves.
8. Pilots are more concerned about an ontime arrival if they have a flight to catch to go home.
9. Sometimes pilots look at each other and at the same time say "what was that?"
10. If you think the cabin air is bad, you should be up in the cockpit with a captain who ate the hard boiled eggs and beef-n-bean burrito for lunch.

Obviously a little play here. It is hard to be serious because we are taught to tell all. Obviously, the technical and boring stuff is left out, but most people like to know what is going on. There is not a lot of obfuscating going on, at least to my knowledge. Good luck with your article...

Sadly, I think most of us would love to help, but we also have trust issues. There is no doubt in my mind that you are who you say you are which is exactly why we are suspicious. After incidents like Colgan 3407 it's become even more important what we say or don't say. Believe me I want to scream at the top of my lungs so the world can hear how messed up our industry is and our passengers perception of it. You wouldn't believe some of the comments I used to get on a daily basis. With that said, most of the companies we work for very specifically prohibit us from talking to any media of any kind with the consequences of losing our jobs or worse, not getting another. Would you hire a whistle blower? They wouldn't. Again would love to help, but won't.

Most of what you mentioned are myths and hoaxes anyway.

As for the autopilot, the best analogy I can think of for a non-pilot is this: When you engage the cruise control on your car does it drive your car? Yes and no. It controls your speed and does what YOU tell it to do. No more, no less. Exactly like an autopilot. Garbage in, garbage out.

Edit: ^^And what ToeJam said ;-)^^
8 is especially true. Hey if you commuted from San Francisco to New York a couple times a week than you would understand too. Just remember, every HELL you go though whenever you travel, we go through on a daily basis to an extreme. How our flight attendants find the courage to smile every day, I don't know, but I admire them for it. In the mean time I'll admire the view!

Amen!!!

......

Or... "sometimes it does that".

Not all of those folks are sitting in the back, dear. :)

No competition...