Are you afraid of airplanes or afraid of flying? Part 2

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Are you afraid of airplanes or afraid of flying? Part 2

Welcome to the second part of the special about the Fear of Flying. In this second installment we are going to talk about those mysterious beings that we rarely see and usually, We Only Hear Their Voices Through Airplane Speakers And Why We Should Trust Them.

Check out the first installment.: Fear to fly.
Check out the third installment.: Turbulence and other factors.

Post written by: Captain Rudolph Star (with small contributions from Nicolás Larenas)
FAA Commercial Pilot
Twitter: @rodo_estrella

The pilots

First of all, the pilots are highly qualified and trained personnel., They know the aircraft they fly very well and receive periodic training as well as continuous training in different
situations that, in addition to including the normal handling of the aircraft, include emergency handling, and the so famous CRM (Crew Resource Management) What is proper resource management?
communication, leadership, risk assessment and decision making to reduce the risk of the "human factor" what is popularly known as "pilot error" this science of CRM is currently
a very important pillar in the training of pilots to reduce the risk of possible human error.

For a person to get to sit in the Commander's or First Officer's seats, they must have gone through long periods of training and education, that always start, in a pilot school, from where these characters, lovers of one of the most demanding and stressful professions in the world, will be initially trained for a period of at least 2 years. During this time, The students will advance in their careers and incorporate qualifications and accessories that allow them to provide even more security to their flights and those of their future passengers..

Students will start as private pilots, after instrument pilot, multi-engine pilots, commercial pilot and in some cases also instructor pilot. After reaching the last license that qualifies them to be an airline pilot, which is that of a commercial pilot, they will have to add flight hours to be able to enter a large company, for instance, the minimum requirements are 300 flight hours and will grow exponentially according to the regulations of each country or of the companies themselves, so the pilots of your plane, will have more than necessary flight experience prior to being hired.

Apart from the hours of entry to the airline required, once they do, they will go through strong knowledge and psychological tests plus specific studies of the plane they will fly, where flight hours in a certified simulator are included, In this, all the skills and knowledge of the pilot about the plane will be tested to face potential emergency situations in a controlled environment., but that will give you enough experience for later, face them in a hypothetical case in real life.

The pilot career may seem somewhat short when compared to, for example, an engineering, especially if we take into account all the responsibility involved in transporting thousands of passengers daily, but the difference is in the strong training and studies that a short race implies. After 2 years of basic instruction, will pass at least 1 year more until the pilot accumulates the necessary hours to be competitive in a demanding environment and get a job and then until 1 one more year to achieve the specific rating for the aircraft that was contracted.

The pilot who is communicating over the plane's speakers or who greeted you when you boarded, he is an expert in the plane he flies, since generally, will be able to fly a specific type of plane and not like any other citizen who can drive a Ford one day and a Ferrari the next. Every aircraft has its complexities, special systems, so you should be calm that the pilot, you know yes or yes, fly the plane that is about to take off.

the flight path.

Before each flight, the pilots and the airline carefully plan each dispatch in order to make it as safe and pleasant as possible. Although there are meteorological issues such as the
turbulence that are difficult to anticipate and can be found anywhere in the flight, there are routine reports where meteorological news is reported on the flight routes, Additionally, during the planning stage there are various weather reports where you can analyze in a timely manner what the weather will be like along the route..

We can be sure that the crew has studied in advance the chosen route and the weather conditions for each flight., However, as i mentioned before, there are conditions that are
unpredictable events for which in-flight reports from other pilots in the air are helpful, which, together with the very design of the aircraft, guarantee us in a great way that, but sometimes
a little moved the trip will be safe.

What if it's night?, and if it's cloudy?, how does the pilot know where he is going?

The instrumentation of the aircraft, in addition to serving as a guide for en-route navigation, also serves to verify the attitude status of the aircraft during its flight., be for example if your nose is up, O
if it is level, whether at night or during the day or with little or no visibility, the instruments will let the crew know how the aircraft is flying, all commercial pilots have an instrument flight certification where they learn to fly without visual cues and solely based on cockpit instruments. If dangerous deviations occur in the flight attitude, some aircraft have warning and protection systems to avoid a dangerous flight attitude..

What if the pilot does not see the runway when landing?

Instrument landing guidance systems guide aircraft laterally and vertically to a minimum safe altitude, If the plane reaches that altitude and the runway is not in sight, it proceeds to a
missed approach to retry or hold for better conditions, the pilots will never try to land in poor visibility if certain technical conditions are not met and always on the approach path to the runway the crew will have references in their instruments about the location of the aircraft with respect to the runway to land. So if one day you are comfortably seated and you know the plane is landing and unexpectedly you feel the plane's engines start to sound louder accelerating, don't worry, It is a standard and security measure that is carried out whenever the landing conditions are not safe., either by determination of the pilots or by a third party such as air traffic control.

There is always the possibility of a problem with any vital on-board system and aircraft have alternate or redundant systems that, in the event of failure of one, replace them for operation.. For instance, some airplanes have three independent hydraulic systems that, in the case of failure of one, the other two can act as a replacement for the first.

As you can see, being a driver is not easy and we could spend thousands more words describing the training and how a driver becomes a professional in one of the toughest races, but beautiful in the world. If you're afraid to fly, you must eliminate from your head the subject of the pilot, since they know what they do and have sacrificed their lives to do it.

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