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Cockpit Confidential

Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel, Questions, Answers, and Reflections

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

A New York Times bestseller

For millions of people, travel by air is a confounding, uncomfortable, and even fearful experience. Patrick Smith, airline pilot and author of the web's popular Ask the Pilot feature, separates the fact from fallacy and tells you everything you need to know...

How planes fly, and a revealing look at the men and women who fly them
Straight talk on turbulence, pilot training, and safety
The real story on congestion, delays, and the dysfunction of the modern airport
The myths and misconceptions of cabin air and cockpit automation
Terrorism in perspective, and a provocative look at security
Airfares, seating woes, and the pitfalls of airline customer service
The colors and cultures of the airlines we love to hate

Cockpit Confidential covers not only the nuts and bolts of flying, but also the grand theater of air travel, from airport architecture to inflight service to the excitement of travel abroad. It's a thoughtful, funny, at times deeply personal look into the strange and misunderstood world of commercial flying.

It's the ideal book for frequent flyers, nervous passengers, and global travelers.

Refreshed and vastly expanded from the original Ask the Pilot, with approximately 75 percent new material.

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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 25, 2013
      If you’re a white-knuckle flyer, this informative, comprehensive book on air travel is for you. Smith, an airplane pilot and travel writer, takes the mystery out of commercial aviation by giving the reader the basic elements of flight, explaining how these large planes stay airborne; the dangers of takeoffs and landings; and the dreaded presence of wind shear and turbulence. Casual in tone though detailed, Smith’s narrative does not skirt the safety issues of lightning and bird strikes on the aircraft, and one of the most dangerous problems— ice build-up. Whether he’s writing about the confined legroom of the “puddle jumper regional jets” or the rigid training of pilots, he never gets caught in industry jargon or talking down to the reader. The regular air passenger will be intrigued by his expert take on the hazards of the modern airport, with overbooking, delays, and lapses in customer service, while the nervy one might gain a measure of relief—or not. Along with the inside scoop on collisions, crashes, and terrorism in air history, Smith paints an unflinching portrait of modern air travel with several fresh and unexpected insights.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

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