Pilot

Are there any pilots who suffer from motion sickness?
Q. I'm planning on getting my pilot's license soon. I have wanted to be a private pilot all my life, but I have always been prone to motion sickness. Even the swings at the park have made me feel queasy. Are there any pilots who experience the same thing? How do you cope with the motion sickness?
Asked by tooqerq - Tue Jun 17 22:02:07 2008 - - 5 Answers - 1 Comments

A. I used to pretty bad motion sickness when I was first learning to fly. Others have said you get used to it and it's true. You do get used to it but you would have to fly fairly regularly and you would have to build up a tolerance to the bumps and jiggles an airplane experiences. I would begin by flying early in the day before the turbulence builds up too much or fly later in the afternoon after the turbulence settles a bit. When you get used to that, start flying a little later in the morning when the turbulence starts to build. It's a matter of habit and accommodation. For what it's worth, the famous German fighter pilot Werner Molders got horribly airsick during his training but persevered, overcame it and went on to become one of… [cont.]
Answered by Z - Wed Jun 18 10:32:19 2008

can the pilots eject when a commercial airline is in out of control?
Q. why pilots are not ejecting when all hopes are lost?
Asked by roshith k - Sun May 11 08:22:02 2008 - - 12 Answers - 0 Comments

A. No. Commercial airliners do not have ejection seats, or parachutes for that matter. You cannot eject from a plane with 300 passengers--whether or not it is crashing, because there might be a possiblity to bring a plane down, and save at least some of the passengers. Without a pilot, there is no chance at all. Commercial pilots understand this duty when they take the job. They practice for sometimes hundreds of hours in flight simulators, to try and recreate every possible type of emergency, and practice how to bring a damaged plane down safely. There are going to be some malfunctions and crashes that are not survivable. They understand that as well. Every pilot understands also that he must try, if at all possible, not to crash into an… [cont.]
Answered by JOHN B - Sun May 11 08:34:14 2008

How do pilots plan their descent to the airports to land?
Q. Can someone please tell me how pilots plan their descent to their destination airport or how they plan their approach on final to land exactly on the runway threshold. Could someone please give me an example. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You.
Asked by Bage881 - Thu Jul 19 23:20:03 2007 - - 10 Answers - 0 Comments

A. As a general rule we plan on taking 3 miles to descend 1,000 feet. Suppose I'm flying at 31,000 feet and am flying to Milwaukee (elevation 780 feet above sea level). I'm flying roughly 30,000 feet above landing elevation so I'll need 30 x 3 = 90 miles for the descent. I do this during the entire descent, constantly keeping track of my height above the destination airport and my distance from the field. (Of course the FMS is keeping track of this, too, but I like to keep my head in the game. It's a bad habit to blindly let the machine fly your airplane). A quick rule of thumb to calculate required rate of descent is to make your descent rate equal to 5 times your groundspeed. An easy way to calculate this is to take your groundspeed, [cont.]
Answered by Jim - Thu Jul 19 23:55:30 2007