CNN article on problems in Air Travel, as seen by FAA

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:12:25 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

John Kulp writes:

Completely ridiculous. The problem is the runways are at capacity
GIVEN the ATC system/paths being used. Change the path to shorten the
paths and you increase capacity. Got that yet?

How do you change arrival and departure paths without moving runways? MLS is
a dead letter now and GPS isn't precise enough to provide ILS-equivalent
landing capability, so you're stuck with straight-in approaches, aligned with
runways.

You're completely dense. You change the flight paths. They're in the
AIR not on the GROUND like the runways. Got that?


Oh, so a long experience pilot with a major carrier who uses these
systems every day doesn't know what he's talking about but you do huh?

Possibly. Pilots know how to fly planes, but they don't have to know how
planes work. In the old days, before computers did most of the dirty work,
planes had flight engineers, who _did_ know how the planes worked. Today, a
computer handles most things. In both cases, the pilots didn't have to know,
and it would have been quite an extra burden on them to try to train them,
anyway. You don't have to know how a FMS works in order to use one.

Boy, are you a complete moron. The pilots don't know how the planes
work. They just sit there like robots staring out the window while
some ghost flies them. They use GPS overseas all the time but they
don't know how to use them. What idiocy.

John Kulp writes:

You're completely dense. You change the flight paths. They're in the
AIR not on the GROUND like the runways. Got that?

During take-off and especially approach, the flight paths are necessarily
aligned with the runways, since aircraft cannot instantly turn after leaving
the runway or instantly turn just before touching down. Thus, there are
flight paths that are inextricably linked to runway positions. The only way
to change them is to reposition the runways.

The pilots don't know how the planes work.

Apart from the most general principles, yes.

They just sit there like robots staring out the window while
some ghost flies them.

No, but during automated phases of a flight (which means most phases, today),
they don't have a lot to do. Still, that's better than requiring them to keep
their hands on the controls for eight hours at a stretch, in a number of ways.

They use GPS overseas all the time but they don't know how to use them.

They use GPS everywhere, but they don't have to know how it works to use it.