Bored in Cruise...

RogerWilco787

RogerWilco787

Well-Known Member
So I just started flying long flights aka flights over 3 hours and I have started getting extremely bored. I was wondering what some of you guys do to keep yourselves awake (besides sucking down copious amounts of coffee or donning the 100% O2 quick don mask for a few minutes) and entertained. All ideas will be considered.

Thanks
 
3 hours is a long flight? Jeez, that's barely enough time to get a hot crew meal!
 
Monitor the aircraft.


(Do you really think anybody is going to say something other than what's approved in their FOM?)
 
I dont know what your conditions are, but I can hardly fly now without my xm radio. Did a 13 hour ferry flight from new orleans to Maine, and I don't know what I would have done without it.
 
RogerWilco787 said:
We don't have xm radio, and I don't fly in the airlines so no crew meals
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Some things are worth paying for yourself. I bought a radio for thirty bucks that plugs into the cigarette lighter, and 18 dollars a month is a small price to pay for not going stir crazy.
 
I carry a ton of music on my phone to listen to. Take lots of pictures (obviously being at 1000 AGL or so helps a bunch with that). Eat, figure out a way to go to the bathroom when you're the only person on board.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
I carry a ton of music on my phone to listen to. Take lots of pictures (obviously being at 1000 AGL or so helps a bunch with that). Eat, figure out a way to go to the bathroom when you're the only person on board.
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It's gotta take you 3 hours just to shoot an appch.
 
Set the alarm on your cell phone. Wedge the cell phone between your headset and ear. Set alarm on cell phone. Sleep. Repeat as necessary.
 
RogerWilco787 said:
So I just started flying long flights aka flights over 3 hours and I have started getting extremely bored. I was wondering what some of you guys do to keep yourselves awake (besides sucking down copious amounts of coffee or donning the 100% O2 quick don mask for a few minutes) and entertained. All ideas will be considered.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I just did a 15.5 hour flight over the north pole. For the roughly 8.5 hours I was in the seat there was almost zero time where I was not doing something related to the flight. It was not boring in the least. Going back tonight and it will likely be the same.

It goes pretty quick when you are constantly paying attention to where you are; where the closest alternate is; what the weather at the alternates is; making pre-calls at FIR boundaries; getting oceanic clearances ( 2 required on this flight ); monitoring waypoint crossing time and fuel; plotting fixes; dealing with a pack failure; preparing for an approach to an airport you only fly to once or twice a year; etc; etc.

Okay so it's probably not that complicated when flying domestically, but there is still a lot to do. Are you constantly paying attention to where you would go if you had an engine failure or fire? Do you listen to volmet; hiwas; or gather weather at airports along the route? Are you intimately familiar with the characteristics of each and every airport that you are flying over?



Typhoonpilot
 
3 hours? Try 11. Even flying low and slow, you eventually run out of things to see. Then the clock really starts to drag on....
 
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