My Thoughts on Pilots Flying Us Around
By Tab Hauser
Change of the Routine in the Cockpit
I am not one of those old timers as I call them flying around the country going from account to account all the time, however I am not one of the younger group either when this happened. At 46 at the time I guess I have to think of myself as in the middle of the group. I was not the cagey gray haired sales veterans in wing tips, yet, not the young slicked hair short haired guys in the power shirts and ties who you see on the blueberry, cell phones and computers sometimes simultaneously while drinking expensive lattes.
Anyway, one morning about 15 years ago I was on a jet going to Chicago. I always like to look at the cockpit and back then you were always allowed to do so. This time I noticed a female in the Co-Captains seat. Not something very common, but not that unusual. When I looked to her left I saw another female in the captains seat. This was unusual and made a mental note of this later. . My fellow passengers were all almost all my seniors. What happened next was kind of interesting. We took off in the normal way jets go about their business. Next came the announcement. You know the one where the pilot has to tell you where we go and all the other stuff we have no control over. Anyway, as the pilot got on saying something like this is your co-pilot Susan Smith and we will be traveling at an altitude of 34,000 feet passing over Buffalo, Cleveland, etc… A few of the business guys looked up for a second but did not seem to think otherwise.. Towards the end of the announcement Susan Smith said she was joined by her pilot was Captain Joyce Woods and in the cabin serving you are (mentioning the 4 people on board) you know the drill. Anyway, what was funny was watching 90% of all the business guys lifted their head when they heard the name Joyce Woods as the pilot and realized this was a an all female flight deck. It was one of those instantaneous moments you have to look for and no one realizes the shared expression. A minute later it was all heads in business papers and newspapers. In traveling I have never seen this happen unless there was a real problem on board.
Pilots With No Accents...
The other thing that I believe changes is the name and nationality of pilots when they come on board. Each time I have flown and the plane gets airborne you hear the pilot. Generally speaking it has been a male with what I call that reassuring self confident Midwest voice. You know the one that sounds like he was in the air force for 25 years and can handle anything you throw at him. It usually comes on the speakers as Good Morning. This is your pilot (or sometimes co-pilot) Skip Williams, or Steve Adams, one of my favorites is when they have the first name like Bud as in let us say Bud Stevenson. I swear some of these pilots come on board with names like Stanley Kowolski, of Marvin Schwartz or Tony Rizzo but that microphone aided with a computer does a voice and name change. How come you never hear some guy with a heavy Brooklyn accent named Tony Rizzo saying something like., Yo, hi, this is your pilot Tony Rizzo from your flight based Brooklyn crew. I can tell you about the altitude, speed and what direction we are going but you know, “fah-get about it”, Keep your butts in your seats, we got everything in control and don’t give no crap to the pretty ladies and my boys serving you or I’ll give this bird a shaking. You also don’t hear some one come on like this. Hello, Hello, oh it is on. This is pilot Sammy Moskevitz. I am flying hear up front with my co-pilot Bernie Schwartz. Don’t worry, everything is fine. Ve vanted to say that our flight to Miami will be 2 hours and 45 minutes. Maybe 10 minutes late, maybe a few minutes early…We’ll see how the wind and God goes. Please let our nice flight crew know if there is anything you need. If you are not too cold or not too hot. Please sit back and enjoy…all is well. Thank you. Also one last thing.. Sadie in the flight crew, can you bring me and Bernie a couple of nice hot cups of tea please.
Instead of those two scenarios you get the same people getting into the cockpit putting on the microphone and hearing in that thick Navy veteran voice Welcome, this is John William and I am your pilot on board
On A Moment of Truth...
It is really important people pay attention to their surroundings on board a plane or anywhere they travel. A few years ago I was traveling with my family in early December on a Continental flight leaving Cleveland. It was evening and it had been snowing. Flights were not badly delayed considering the weather and we were all happy when we finally boarded. When they told us to board we were a bit rushed on as there must have been a time slot or something we had to make.
With our boarding delayed the jet must have been sitting a while on at the gate as I noticed a bit of snow, slush and ice building up on the wings. I also noticed that the de-icing trucks were making their way to other planes about to leave. When our plane left the gate I noticed we had not been de-iced. I rang my call button and advised the flight attended of the snow build up on the wing. She politely told me that the Captain has things under control and not to worry. I got concerned when we past the de-icing area and rang the button. This time I advised her if she did not tell the Captain perhaps I will. At that point she said she make a mention of it to the cockpit.
About 30 seconds after she left my seat and just as we were about to get on the runaway there was a sharp jolt and the plane stopped instantly. A few seconds later a deep voiced captain gets on the speakers saying something like Ladies and Gentlemen we stopped the plane at this time to get it de-iced. However it will take a few minutes as the trucks will have to make its way to us now. A minute later a man in his mid 50's behind put his hand on my shoulder and told me he can not thank me enough for insisting the flight attendant tell the captain of what was happening on the wings. While I will not take credit for saving a plane from doom, one does never know given a few bad breaks what could have happened. Anyway, if you see something you do not like, say something.