Editorial About Pilot PA's

when i was flying kingairs we had a CA who always HAD to make a PA to the pax. made me laugh everytime, because 1. the PA sucks when its working, which it never was. 2. if you want to let the guys in the back know something, just turn around and tell them.
 
Funny Dave Barryesqe comments. This guys is probably a very regular flyer with nothing better to complain about. Personally I don't like when the pilots are too chatty over the intercom. That said I try to let people know if I think the ride is going to be bumpy. Why? Because 1/2 the pax are already freaked out about the size of the Brasilia and the props. Anything I can do to make them more at ease is a good thing.
 
And if he's stuck on the ground out on a taxiway in DTW (or short of the gate for 30 minutes), he'll complain about not being told what's going on.

Seeing that he writes for a DTW newspaper, I might have to start checking passenger manifests before we push back. If he's on there, you can bet he's gonna get a nice, long rambling PA. :)
 
I'm still at the stage where I'm asking the Captain for guidance on these; if it's sleepy time I cut them short but if it's mid day I'll include some information that our FOM says the passengers "enjoy" hearing.

The word "enjoy" only has two occurrences in our FOM, I swear.
 
kellwolf said:
And if he's stuck on the ground out on a taxiway in DTW (or short of the gate for 30 minutes), he'll complain about not being told what's going on.

Seeing that he writes for a DTW newspaper, I might have to start checking passenger manifests before we push back. If he's on there, you can bet he's gonna get a nice, long rambling PA. :)
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You've got a pilot bulletin board or something, right? You oughta put out the bulletin to everyone to watch out for him.

"And, ladies and gentlemen, since the gentleman in seat 5B hates these PA announcements so much, we're going to just talk about any old thing for the entire flight. So, let me explain what drag coefficient is, and then we'll get into the coanda effect..."
 
Van_Hoolio said:
I'm still at the stage where I'm asking the Captain for guidance on these; if it's sleepy time I cut them short but if it's mid day I'll include some information that our FOM says the passengers "enjoy" hearing.

The word "enjoy" only has two occurrences in our FOM, I swear.
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If it's an early morning flight, the seat belt sign gets nixed, and I generally won't say a word until we're descending into the destination. The FOM says we're supposed to make a PA whenever we change the seat belt sign. For the standard PAs it's seat belt sign, keep 'em on if your staying in your seat, wx rundown at destination, time enroute. When we start the descent it's seat belt sign back on, sit down, wx update if things have changed and thanks for flying with us. If that's too much for some people, then they have bigger issues in life. :)
 
If there's a movie, I'll generally keep my mouth shut.

On the transcons with the satellite television I didn't make a peep because they had a nice moving map display with groundspeed, arrival time and geographic position, plus the weather channel for live weather! :)

Whenever I had an -88 without any IFE, I'd mention flying time, route of flight, etc.
 
This guy went a little too far when he suggests cutting out our voice boxes with garden shears. I know he feels strongly, but suggesting violence when terrorists used box cutters to kill pilots and crash 4 planes less than 6 years ago makes my skin crawl.

About the PA's, it's a no-win situation. Some people want to know what the weather is like, how long it's going to take to get to XYZ, if it's going to be a bumpy flight, etc... Other people just want to fly in silence. You simply can't please everyone.

One more thing, we're required to make an announcement when the seatbelt sign is turned on/off.
 
SkyCougar said:
I do. :D Obviously, because of where I live, I'm on United a lot and because I'm also a dork/geek, :buck: I almost always listen in from my seat to the pilots, ground and ATC on their channel 9.
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Yeah, I'm on UAL a lot as well but I gotta tell you, the only time I pay attention to channel 9 is when we're in a delay. Then I have to check to see what's going on.

The rest of the time, I'm listening to my own stuff! Vive le Ipod!
 
tonyw said:
Yeah, I'm on UAL a lot as well but I gotta tell you, the only time I pay attention to channel 9 is when we're in a delay. Then I have to check to see what's going on.

The rest of the time, I'm listening to my own stuff! Vive le Ipod!
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I don't. I'm a dork. I listen at take-off and landing on every flight. Everytime my sons and I fly together on a United flight, the boys will he hip-hoppin' in their seats with their iPods on and they'll ask me what I'm listening to. I tell them I'm listening to ATC and the pilots, and then they look at me like I'm the alien parental unit.

Of course they're musicians and we all know they're not aliens! :p
 
Van_Hoolio said:
I'm still at the stage where I'm asking the Captain for guidance on these; if it's sleepy time I cut them short but if it's mid day I'll include some information that our FOM says the passengers "enjoy" hearing.

The word "enjoy" only has two occurrences in our FOM, I swear.
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LOL!! Only two times, eh? I'm going to try to confirm that. :)

Usually on the short hops, we don't say anything at all. There's just too much to do as far as flying the airplane.
 
SkyCougar said:
I tell them I'm listening to ATC and the pilots, and then they look at me like I'm the alien parental unit.
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I used to listen to channel nine a lot, but then when I started talking to ATC on my own, it lost its fascination for me.

It's like, well, yes, I can do that too, so what's the big deal.

I wonder if people who are listening to channel nine have heard ME talking to ATC!
 
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