NJA Cockpit Culture

[paulsalem]

For those of you who work at NJA:

What do you guys do upfront to stay entertained. I've heard you fly with the door open, so you can't really read.

 

[Waldom]

Something quite novel; fly the airplane and manage the flight.

 

[t-bone]

Something quite novel; fly the airplane and manage the flight.

In your 17000 hours, you've never once read a magazine or played brick-breaker on your blackberry??? Wow, that is some attention span you've got!

 

[Waldom]

I'm easily amused.

 

[bluepost]

Or easily overwhelmed

 

[Waldom]

That too.

 

[BengalsFan]

well this discussion has gone no where

 

[jtf]

Most of us spend the time on the pax legs talking. Ferry legs are a bit more relaxed, but they tend not to be very long. I've seen some people close the curtain and read, but that is not common. My guess is that the flight attendant aircraft have a fair amount of reading in the cockpit, but that is just a guess since I'm not on any of those.

 

[FLYLOW22]

What to do?

It really depends on what type of flight duration is planned.

Short hop from KHPN-KTEB? No time to do much but fly.

Longer flight from KTEB-KOKC? Fly for a few hours, get up and go to the lav after 3 hours or so. Talk to the Owners for a while if receptive. Other pilot repeats.

Longer still from KTEB-KSMO? Fly for a few hours, get up and use the lav after 3 hours or so. Talk to the Owners if receptive. Other pilot repeats. Both crew repeats every hour or so until 1 hour out.

Int'l Ops over 6 hours? The "I spy with my little eye" game helps a ton.

There is usually plenty to keep us busy on board.

 

[commuterguy]

I think this is a very good question. For those of us who have only flown 121, the USA Today is standard procedure. I know I have wondered the same thing myself. What do you guys do? Talk? Stare? And no need to be defensive, no one is making jabs. Just simply curious. Some FO's I could spend an entire 4 day chatting with, but not the majority. Can you guys sneek in a small paper back book during pax legs?

 

[paulsalem]

What about XM radio?

 

[On Your Six]

Have fun talkin' politics...

 

[fly26]

Eat those crew meals!

 

[CA1900]

.... get up and go to the lav after 3 hours or so.

You must have a bigger tank than I do!

 

[a&p cfiguy]

Best investment I've ever made - the pioneer inno portable xm radio. Throw it up on the dash out of sight, plug it into my headset music input and put it on a commerical free music station. Low volume, in the backround, never miss a radio call. Much better than an ipod because your not listening to the same songs over and over, but it does have 1GB of memory to store some of your own songs and record off of XM. You can also stay connected with whats going on in the world by listening to CNN or Fox news, ESPN, and other talk shows, but I find it's pretty hard to concentrate and listen to a talk show. Music stays in the backround and is much easier to concentrate with, but still only use it in cruise. Battery lasts about 7 hours and recharge at the hotel at night. Sirrius has a portable unit too, but Stern sucks, Opie and Anthony rule!

 

[G200_PILOT]

Most of the guys I fly with have their own Bose QC2 headsets and bring along their MP3 player. Personally, I have an iPhone. I have about 2000 songs on it and about 6 or 7 movies. It's great because you can listen to music while doing other, flight related, things. On long trips, a movie passes the time really well.

If you don't have an iPhone, I recommend looking into an Apple iPod Touch. It's the newest iPod out and it plays songs and movies and also has WIFI internet access. I bought my wife one for Christmas and she can't put it down.

If you have the Bose QC2, it hooks right into the UFLYMIKE jack and works great.

That's what I do anyways.

 

[Hung Start]

What do we talk about? Has it ever changed?

The three "B"'s

Broads, booze and barbeque.

Same way back in the dark ages, I suspect.


Hung

 

[Simon Says]

Something quite novel; fly the airplane and manage the flight.

There is always ONE! There is one guy in recurrent that always has the "what if questions" and there is always ONE on flightinfo that is holyier (sp?) than thou.

I don't have nearly the amount of time as yourself, but I can read a paper and feel with my arse and hear with my ears when something is not right with the airplane. I simply look up to see. I actually monitor the aircraft far more reading a paper than not because I am accutely aware that I am reading a paper and not staring out the window.

 

[Waldom]

Sensitive, are we, Simon?

 

[Simon Says]

Sensitive, are we, Simon?

Yeah, I read your post at a bad time.

Come on, have you ever read the paper while flying?

 

[Dr Pepper]

Pretty silly that we can turn around in our seats to talk to the pax when they are standing next to us, but we can't read the paper.

On long flights, I tune in the AM stations on the NDB and listen to talk radio. It usually stimulates conversation. The moment I get tired, I play brickbreaker. It wakes me up.

 

[blueridge71]

Tear the crossword out of the USA Today and take it into the cockpit. I also have one of those aviator reference maps of the US that shows cities and points of interest along with VORs. That helps pass the time.

 

[fischman]

Int'l Ops over 6 hours? The "I spy with my little eye" game helps a ton.

There is usually plenty to keep us busy on board.

I spy with my little eye something big and blue. :laugh:

 

[paulsalem]

I spy with my little eye something big and blue.

The ads on FI?!

 

[FLYLOW22]

You must have a bigger tank than I do!

Genetics. imp:

 

[FLYLOW22]

I spy with my little eye something big and blue. :laugh:

SKY!!!

 

[theskyking]

I thought you were talking about something I have on day 7 away from the wife...

 

[pilotyip]

Does any one still have NDBs to tune in Rush on the AM stations?

 

[Buckeye]

I stare straight ahead or read the AFM or constantly recite limitaions and memory items. When that runs out I usually sway back and forth in my seat looking like Rain Man. imp:

 

[CA1900]

Does any one still have NDBs to tune in Rush on the AM stations?

Yeah, there are a number of Classic Rock stations listed in the back of the Ac-U-Kwik book.