On Airbus planes, look for a small triangle on the wall of the cabin, above a window a few seats forward of the wing. That indicates which window provides the clearest view of the wing, in case the pilot wishes to inspect it.
I was on a Southwest flight a month or so ago, on which the flight attendant announced that it was in fact the first flight for one of the adult passengers.
“Comments and experience indicate more likelihood from nationalities including (but not limited to) German, Romanian, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Jamaican, Polish, and Israeli - particularly when flying into home airports. Slate.com summed this up well in its analysis, expressing the opinion that no nationality would claim to follow the custom.” (emphasis added)
I’d heard of clapping being the norm when the pilot manages to land a stricken plane that was facing some sort of in-flight emergency, but haven’t heard of a plane that clapped for a normal landing.
Clapping seems to happen spontaneously. Somebody starts and somehow it achieves critical mass and grows to a decent fraction of the crowd at least for a few seconds.
While flying I’ve occasionally heard it going on back there. And not necessarily after some great feat of smooth touchdown.
I propose on the flights that happen to have a few more nervous flyers than usual, or by happenstance they’re seated near each other, and maybe it was bumpier or cloudier, or whatever than usual, then at landing someone’s nervousness boils over into relief and they clap. Which is quickly caught up by others, then a certain herd mentality kicks in, then 5-10 seconds later a hundred people are thinking “Why am I doing this?” and they all stop.
My customers were mostly Americans with a leavening of Latins and Caribbean folks, but for most of my career it was 95% generic Americans. Clapping still happened. Rarely, but not zero.
The purpose of that is to inspect for ice on the leading edges. Not for mechanical problems. There are also lights mounted on the cabin exterior that shine down the leading edge of the wing for the same purpose.
This inspection is done on every cold weather + snow / rain / dense fog departure before the passengers board. The purpose being to ensure there’s no snow or ice sticking to the wing. If any is spotted, the airplane will be de-iced, either before boarding or after start and pushback.
In very extreme snowfall conditions it’s sometimes necessary to run back just before takeoff and take a look out there. That last-minute check was a much bigger deal 20-30 years ago when de-icing / anti-icing technology and procedures were much more primitive. I cannot recall the last time I had reason to do a last-minute check, but it was last century for sure.
Thanks. I don’t see that marking on Boeing planes, just the Airbus ones.
Can they put a heater on the wing, like I have on my side view mirrors?
Boeing, rightly or wrongly, figures their pilots are bright enough to figure out which windows afford a good view. I personally look through three or four to change which way the light is shining on the surface; it can be hard to detect shiny wet ice versus chiny wet aluminum.
Airbus OTOH assumes their pilots have rather little training on anything other than pushing the right buttons in the right order.
I keed, I keed, but only a little. Airbus from the outset of their company was about designing a dumbed-down (or read as “easy to use”) operating experience for their crews. Based on planning to sell most of their planes to what were then small poor countries about to experience major economic growth and their first generation of middle class citizens.
That’s a very big topic but the super TLDR version is
Not one big enough to keep all falling snow and ice off all that big flat surface while on the ground at idle power. Nor while the airplane is switched off and parked overnight on a gloppy night.
A bit off-topic, but I just read an article in MIT’s Technology Review that mentioned in passing that airline travel is insanely safe. The point was that in any sufficiently complicated structure, there will be glitches and failures and that no other mechanical device had ever been made so nearly foolproof as commercial airliners. They mentioned that in 2017 there were no fatal commercial airline accidents. Of course, Boeing took care to remedy that in the next two years.
A long time ago I flew Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in a friend’s Cessna. There were three of us on the plane. It was winter and the weather was shit.
The minute we were off the ground, the pilot began complaining about the weather. It was the worst conditions he’d ever flown in and he regretted his decision to fly.
The flight was incredibly rough. At one point the other passenger asked me to pass him one of the little trash cans. I realized why he wanted one and began puking into mine.
When we were on the ground at Pittsburgh’s County airport I couldn’t stand up, I was so dizzy.
They’re the same as the inflatable slides that deploy when you open the doors, in most commercial airliners.
Most slides on overwater airplanes are indeed slide-rafts. But in many cases that doesn’t afford enough capacity for everyone. So additional rafts are installed in ceiling compartments.
Hi Opal!
Now that was funny.
For 20 minutes.
About 100 years ago.
Damn, tough crowd.
It depends. Flaps are wrong? Leave it to the professionals.
Some guy in the seat behind me is muttering “Allah Akbar” and has mentioned the word “bomb” or something- yep, I will go talk to a stewardess quite quickly
This is giving me Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy flashbacks.
Barman: “Are you serious, sir? Do you really think the world’s about to end?”
Ford: “Yes, in about 5 minutes.”
Barman: “Well isn’t there anything we can do?”
Ford: “No.”
Barman: “Well I thought we were supposed to lie down, or put a bag over our heads, or something.”
Ford: “Yes. If you like.”
Barman: “Oh, will that help?”
Ford: “No.”