Unnecessary or unclear chatter from the pilots to the passengers?

1. Giving altitude in feet. Passengers don't know the difference between FL330, 370, and 380. Who cares how high you are? If you'd like them to know, translate it into miles instead.
   
2. Announcing total flying time after you're airborne. What passenger looked at his watch to note the liftoff time?
   
3. Announcing what cities you'll be flying over today. Passengers don't care, they want to know the cities as you fly over them. Unless it's late at night.
   
4. Saying that you'll be landing on runway "one eight". Say what? That means absolutely nothing to 98% of the people in back. Use the words North, South, etc. instead. Think like a news weatherman.

Anyone else care to add? Just trying to make us better communicators with our customers.

 

I was in the back yesterday on a flight and the pilot said "Philadelphia is using an east operation this evening, though the winds don't support it. This resulted in a lot of extra vectoring from ATC to get runway 9 right and now we are holding short of 9L to get to the gate."

Plenty of words that no passengers had a clue about, I'd bet:
-East operation
-Vectoring
-ATC
-9L
-9R

I would have said, "When the winds at Philadelphia are like they are tonight, the airport slows down. We might have to wait a few minutes more than usual on the ground after landing."

The pilot went on to give the temperature and dewpoint in celcius, the ceiling in feet and that "the computer says we will be 5 minutes late."

 

As a passenger with more miles than is good for me, I like to be as informed as possible. And now that I am a student pilot, I appreciate and understand the technical lingo sometimes used.

This is probably just me, but I’d like to hear the following:

As we are pushing back or whenever safe, give me the duration of the flight, time we arrive at destination, weather at destination, possibility of turbulence on the way.

On a clear day, tell me that it’s Mt. Rushmore on the left side or that in 5 minutes we are flying over the Great Salt Lake and those on the right side can see it. It’s ok to play tour guide and be proud possessor of geographic tidbits.

When landing at my home airport, I know what Runway 34 is, but it’s nice to know that we are making a loop or something because of the direction in which we are coming in. And if the loop involves going over Mt. Rainier, I know other passengers not from Seattle would appreciate knowing it.

Many of these factoids (sorry HSLD, I can’t get that word out of my head since you used it) are freely given by the flight attendant already, but it’s nice to hear the perspective from the flightdeck.

I also would enjoy a good joke or two. I was on American once and the captain was the funniest guy. It made my day.

Needless to say, I am one of those glued to the screen on those international flights where they show the progress of this little airplane superimposed on the world map.

 

As someone who commutes a lot, across this very wide country, I'd prefer that the guys in the cockpit: a) welcome us on board; b) tell us it's going to be a smooth ride; c) tell us when we're about a half hour from landing; and finally d) thank us for flying with ABC airline. Any more than that just interferes with whatever book I'm reading or thought I'm having at that moment.

As well, here's some things that I don't care to hear: a) that we're number 21 for takeoff; b) an announcement about any and all cities and historical landmarks that are always on the other side of the jet; c) that we will be landing on whatever runway; d) that the winds at the airport are such and such; e) and my most disliked announcement - when we're 5 feet from the gate, the flight attendant always announces "please remain in your seat with your seat belt fastened, until the captain has turned off the seatbelt sign." This announcement always ends with the captain turning off the seatbelt sign within 2 seconds of the announcement. Why bother.

Just my .02 cents.

 

Most announcements are mandatory (FAA or company SOP) so you don't have a lot of choice on those. As a commuter, I like to hear these "extra" flight deck announcements (and that is what I do)...

- If delayed during taxi, ET to T/O
- Enroute landmarks (and revised ETA) only for significant landmarks on long flights (daytime only, at night please ****)
- Descent announcement w/ ETA and gate. At night I delay this as long as possible.
- Reason and ETA for any post-landing ground delays.

The announcement to stay seated while waiting for marshallers is actually a very good idea...otherwise all the paxs get up and open bins which can create a problem when you finally do pull forward and hit the brakes. It saves the FA the trouble of yelling at people.

 

Glad we now have your order. Now all we need to know is what the other 100 passengers want. I've got a hunch it is not exactly the same as your request.

Just a hunch.

BTW, how do you know what "most" passengers want??? Or should they just want what you want?

You do it your way when you're Captain....

 

[QUOTE=Anyone else care to add? Just trying to make us better communicators with our customers.[/QUOTE]

I also add that 'our flight plan is scheduled for 1+30, we will consume XXX gallons of jet fuel; that's 1/2 mpg or 18 gallons for each one of you.' Kinda gives the pax an idea of the great bargain (18 gallons to go from MSP-LGA) that they are getting.

 

Got to make this one hoss. If a passenger stands up the plane can't taxi. I've seen many an idiotic passenger stand up prior to the gate. A fed will fine you heavily. If a passenger falls and gets hurt...you get the idea. Heavily stressed at most pax carriers as SOP.

 

I agree with you, WTFU. Many guys make PA's that don't take into consideration what the average passenger knows about aviation.

Bad example, "We'll be landing Three Six"
Good example, "We'll be landing to the North today"

Simple stuff it seems, but pilots will always screw things up

 

"Please remain seated for "the entire duration" of the flight,..." A little redundant maybe?