True. With rudders rolling hard over, BE-1900 controls siezing or breaking on takeoff, airbus vertical stabs falling off, aircraft spontaneously exploding over Long Island, 747 wings falling off in Asia, the Concorde losing it's rudder 37 times and exploding in flight in a spectacular ball of fire once...it's amazing that any passenger would ever make a quiet gesture of self assurance when they place their lives in our hands. After all, we've done safety checks. A really thorough preflight. And Mx. never pencil whips work cards or squawks. Never.
And the media never picks up on it, either. And the public never hears about it...
I suspect that pax wrap on the fuselage in order to see for themselves how solid it is. Who hasn't done the same thing when looking at fine woodwork, or anything else where one might guess at the solidity of the object? It's natural curiosity. Will it sound solid, like a billet of steel, or will it sound like a beer can?
It's not just the non-pilot public. I jumped on a regional aircraft in Cody once, headed for Salt Lake City. Riding along fat, dumb and happy in back. The flight made for the runway and took it in short order. The PF held short first, doing several power runs on the engine, before taxiing into position. Then a power run with the brakes held, followed by a brake release and our roll. We rolled several hundred feet before the engines were yanked back to idle, and heavy braking applied. We stopped on the runway. More engine runs. Then a cabin announcement.
"We had a problem and we think we got it fixed. We're going to go now." That was it. No courtesies, nothing but the facts, ma'am. We rolled, and climbed to 15,000. There, we went into a series of amoeba-like holds that were nothing like the published hold over Cody. All over the place. Then another anouncement that the problem appeared fixed, and that we were going to try to get to SLC.
The flight was uneventful, until a long straight in final to 16R at SLC. The PF spent a good 20 miles of long final walking the rudders back and forth, rocking us nearly to sickness, some to sleep. Rythmically, back and forth, right and left, over and over, all the way to touchdown. No wind, calm conditions. Just some kind of nervous, stupid habit.
Even as a working pilot with an understanding of the needs in the cockpit, I never like riding in back, and I have a healthy distrust for a good share of the pilot population. Perhaps I've just been in the business long enough to know too many pilots. I've known some good ones, and a lot with whom I wouldn't send my dog. I was fortunate that day on XXX airline...my dog was safe at home.
