The Diets of Pilots

It is not secret that a pilot spends a lot of time away from home.  Depending on a pilot's company and seniority, they can spend up to 5 or 6 days at a time away from the comforts of home.  One of the more overlooked nuances that comes with this lifestyle if the type of food that is typically available to pilots away from home.

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Most pilots make atleast 3 or 4 trips a day before heading back to their layover hotel.  Their day typically starts extremely early (before sunrise) and ends late into the evening (post sunset).  This means that the food offerings a pilot sees on a typical day is extremely limited and quite unhealthy.

Picture this: You wake up in an airport hotel at around 5 A.M. and have to be downstairs to catch the crew shuttle to the airport at 6 A.M.  That leaves an hour to wake up, shower, get dressed, and foarge for food.  At most, this means some fruit, a bagel, maybe a box of cereal and a cup of coffee, then it is off to the airport.

Once at the airport it is more coffee and right onto the aircraft.

At this point, at best, a meager breakfast consisting mostly of caffeine to prepare for the day.

Next comes lunch.  Obviously a pilot can't leave the airport in search of something to eat.  This means airport food.  While most will agree airport food is better than airline food, that by no means makes it healthy.  This is a neverending repetition of Burger Kings, Chick-fil-a's, Panda Express, and A&W's.  Whenever I think about it a picture of Tom Hanks' character from the movie "The Terminal" pops into my head where he eats saltines and ketchup for a meal.

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With flights running all day and into the night, this means dinner is much of the same.  Getting back to the hotel after a full duty day isn't conducive to a pilot seeking out food outside of the crew hotel or airport.  Also, the lack of a vehicle presents the same problem.

For professionals who have their entire livelyhood hinging on the fact that they need to stay healthy (and believe me, pilots are legally required to get medically certified as fit, and certified often) it is physically and mentally straining to only be able to eat greasy, fatty and heavy fast food - in fact it can threaten their readiness if measures aren't taken to workout outside of the "office".  

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It isn't all bad though.  Pilots who fly long haul can have a diet that benefit from their flight schedules.  Typically layovers on long-haul flights are much longer (24+ hours) and with a full day in their destination city there is time to leave the hotel and explore for more suitable food options.  Public transportation is much better in other countries as well (compared to overnighting in, say, Fargo, North Dakota) which contributes to the ability to foarge for food.

Corporate pilots can benefit as well.  Working at a jet center in college, corporate pilots would often leave the untouched catering with the line workers (me) to enjoy instead of tossing it out.  If you want to eat expensive lobster and filet mignon on a regular basis as a college student go find a job at the nearest jet center.  Corporate pilots are usually given a more healthy boxed lunch from the same caterers that supply the private jets with their caviar and champagne on top of the leftover catering.

Just about all pilots understand that if they live off the poor airport food and fail to exercise that there is the potential to have their medical standing removed which would pull them off the flight line.  This is the sort of motivation that keeps them healthy, but still a necessary evil that comes with the territory of being a pilot.

The unique air cargo industry

And we are back:

The air cargo industry is quite obviously different from the passenger airline industry. Beyond both offering services that mostly focus on transportation via air the two industries share little else. Let's get into it.

For passenger airlines, the exchange of services (and in some cases, goods) is pretty much entirely contained within the airport or the aircraft. Passenger airlines offer an airport to airport service where travel and accommodation beyond these gateways is ultimately up to the passenger.

The cargo industry offers a very different service. When I worked for a major international cargo service (full disclosure: DHL is the company I previously worked for so my goal is to approach this from an academic and unbiased narrative), we offered what we called "door-to-door" service. That is, a company employee would pick up a package from a customer's home or warehouse and the package(s) would be delivered to the home or final destination of wherever the customer required. Customers were not required to drive to the airport and check their cargo in with the airline and then have another person at the closest airport that the airline served to the package's final destination waiting to pick it up.

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Cargo carriers also deal with the logistics of offering a "door-to-door" service. That means massive fleets of everything from vans and trucks to aircraft, bicycles, motorcycles, cargo ships, trains, and I've even seen branded segways. It is easily surmised from this point that there is a lot more overhead and operational costs to be able to maintain these kinds of service. To be able to control these extra costs there are some operational differences that vary from the passenger transport business.

First is the aircraft. Cargo aircraft operate entirely different schedules and have an entirely different set of costs than passenger aircraft. The biggest advantage is the regulations that mandate the amount of maintenance required on the aircraft on a regular basis. Now don't think that these cargo aircraft are deathtraps - they just aren't. They are immaculate aircraft. They just don't require some of the more in-depth inspections that passenger aircraft are required to go through. This provides a benefit to the cargo airlines in the form of reduced operating costs.

This also allows many cargo carriers the ability to operate much older aircraft. This is another huge economic benefit. Buying a used MD-11 with tens of thousands of hours on the airframe is worlds cheaper than a brand new 747-400F(reighter). This directly puts the cargo carriers at another economic advantage. With lower costs for the acquisition of these assets cargo carriers can afford, in many cases, to purchase these aircraft outright instead of leasing them. This is just like purchasing a car and paying in full with cash - it just means no monthly payments, no interest payments, no outstanding liabilities in the ledger, and in a pinch assets that they can potentially liquidate to free up some cash. All of these aspects of the industry are utilized, particularly by the American based cargo carriers.

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Cargo carriers almost exclusively operate at night. This provides a multitude of benefits as well. First of all these night operations are essential for their time-sensitive deliveries. The deadline to ship a package is usually in the late afternoon so that people can still drop off packages one their way home from work and still be delivered to the other side of the country before noon the next day. This means mostly having night time operations to move the cargo.

Some cargo airlines deviate from this route though. One way this is done is by contracting out the air portion of cargo movement. Mostly that is done by paying a passenger airline or other carrier to carry cargo for them.You may be surprised to learn that some of the largest cargo carriers (measured by total tonnes carried) are passenger airlines. Delta and Southwest are constantly in the top 10 largest cargo carriers in the world, and it makes sense. Delta operates over 4,000 flights a day and there is cargo on just about every flight where UPS operations only about 1,000. Granted those 1,000 UPS flight are pure cargo and the 4,000 Delta are mostly passengers, they are still comparable.

Another way this is done is by purchasing space on a contract cargo carrier. FedEx does this with one company called Mountain Air Cargo. All of Mountain's aircraft are painted in FedEx logos and fly routes specified by FedEx but have their own non-FedEx call-signs and flight numbers. This is a great way for FedEx to be able to server smaller markets without having to purchase, maintain, and staff the smaller aircraft. This also allows for some cities to receive important and sensitive air cargo that can not be delivered by the large MD-11's or 747's. It is obvious that in some cases passenger and cargo operations are one in the same. The two may travel in different cabins of service but still are essential to quick and on-time delivery.

In some aspects cargo and passenger air carriers are very alike. When it comes to pure cargo carriers though, the air cargo industry leverages important economic benefits to create a very resilient and sustainable industry.

This post was also posted on our friends over at Bangalore Aviation.  Be sure to stop in and check out their aviation postings.

Airlines and the TSA

Admittedly I do not know much at all about the TSA and how they operate but a recent photo that was tweeted by a passenger compelled me to make an editorial post.  Let's get into it.

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Apparently this is what a woman found in her checked bag after it came to the curb at the end of her flight.  From what I understand the TSA sometimes manually searches checked bags if there is some sort of discrepancy during their initial x-rays and other checks.  If a manual check takes place then these pre-printed notes are placed in the bag to alert the passenger that their bag was searched.

Evidently an over zealous TSA agent found a very "personal item" in this woman's luggage that they felt warranted a comment.  I think at this point everyone can understand that this isn't a TSA procedure but rather a bad apple among a large group of government employees.

That's where the understanding stops.

If you work in an industry where people are largely unsatisfied with the existence of your job then it is of extreme importance that you act in a manner as professional as possible.  That's because if worse comes to worse you can atleast stand behind the fact that your employees are professional in the way they interact with their customers.

On top of that there seems to be a severe lack of cohesion between the airlines and the TSA.  When the TSA and the airlines should be working together to help improve their overall interaction and reputations with the public, there is a disconnect the width of the Grand Canyon.  

Many of the airlines recognize the fact that before their passengers even board the plane they have been hasseled and are dejected due to their typically negative experience with the TSA.  And because of this, passengers dislike flying even more.  This is a vicious cycle.

I understand the importance and urgency of protecting the skies over the United States and that the jumping off point for that is airport security, but in the world that is air travel where people love to hate on the act of flying commercially (see the headline of this blog) quality customer service and consistent professionalism seems to be lacking.

Again, in an editorial capacity, hearing about this woman's experience with the TSA is frustrating because it is giving people a negative view of air travel and it has absolutely nothing to do with the airline she was flying with or any other commercial air carrier.  The whole point of the post, I suppose, is that I hope readers and travelers alike can notice the difference here; can compartmentalize the fact that this is a TSA issue, not an airline issue.  Yes, they are blanketed by the "air travel" experience that still, admittedly, has ample room for improvement, but these issues are more akin to the way the TSA is mandated by the government and conducts their daily business.

Thanks for tuning in - and don't forget to send me your airline questions!  I am always looking for more "air travel nightmares" so please send away.

Lightning Strikes

In the summer, especially in the South East and near coastal cities, lightning is almost a daily occurence.  It may surprise you that it actually poses little threat to aircraft.

Strokes of lightning strike aircraft more than you may think.  This mostly happens at lower altitudes and normally during take-off and landing.  Often it is not possible to tell if the aircraft has taken a direct hit, instead pilots can report a lightning strike based solely on how loud the thunder is and how bright the flash is.  When this does happen, there is not a lot of things that happen.  

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Typically, the aircraft diverts and lands at the nearest safe runway (usually the airport that is being departed to approached).  Electronics do not flip out, pilots do not lose control, fuel does not ignite.  Once on the ground, the aircraft is typically taken out of service and mechanics begin a "lightning check".  This involves many mechanics inspecting the exterior skin of the aircraft for evidence of a strike then begin a tedious inspection of all the aircraft's electronics and hydraulics.  This inspection may result in a blown fuse here or there - one of presumably many fuses that are incorporated into all levels of redundant systems.  Once a thorough inspection is completed the aircraft is then reinstated to service usually 12-24 hours later.

In basic weather theory, pilots are taught how to recognize situations where lightning may be encountered.  The biggest warning flag for lightning are the dangerous thunderheads that tend to develop during the course of a summer day until they release their immense amounts of energy in a very short amount of time.  A bolt of lightning can, and will, strike as far as 20 miles away from these thunderheads - even if that area 20 miles away is under blue skies.

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Another common place to find lightning is in squall lines preceeding a cold front.  In front of a cold front is warm air that is holding mositure.  Behind the front is cooler, more dense air that holds less mositure.  As the cold air overtakes the warm air, the warmer air rises and the colder air replaces the warm air at the surface.  This creates lifting action, and as the warm, moist air rises it cools and condenses.  As it condenses it transforms from a gas to a liquid and precipitation begins.  This is very much like how a glass of ice water sweats on the outside: the cool liquid inside the glass cools the air on the outside of the glass and as that air cools it loses the ability to hold as much moister in a gaseous state and releases it as a liquid.  

When strong fronts of very cold air replaces very warm pockets of air, this process occurs faster and more intensely and produces extremely strong storms.

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Aircraft Tires

Tires are on airplane are one of the more overlooked parts of an aircraft by passengers.  However, ask any pilot how important it is to make sure their tires are in proper working order and they will most likely talk your ear off about how their tires need 7 plys.  Aircraft tires - here we go:

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Aircraft tires are very different from the large treaded tires your have on your car.  The first and most visible difference is the lack of treads on aircraft tires.  A car enthusiest would call aircraft tires "slicks", meaning there is only two or three small grooves on the surface of the tire.  With car tires, treads are used to move water quickly away from underneath the tire, provide traction on a multitude of surfaces (including unpaved roads and very light off-roading) and provide grip during acceleration power from the wheel.  Aircraft tires have a different need.  The lack of tread is to maximize the amount of vulcanized rubber in direct contact with the tarmac.  This is exactly why NASCAR tires have zero tread, because the more rubber touching the road/runway the more traction there is.  However, with an airplane, treadless tires are not for traction during turning or acceleration - they are for maximum traction during heavy braking.

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Aircraft tires withstand more punishment in a single landing than the tire on a truck does over its entire life.  A Boeing 747 may weigh around 500,000 pounds at landing and is traveling well over 100 mph at landing.  That means each tire has to not only support around 30,000lbs but has to support that weight slamming into the runway at extremely high rates of speed and go from 0 mph to full speed in a fraction of a second.  To help with durability aircraft tires are 7 or 8 ply.  A ply is a layer of woven material that reinforces the vulcanized rubber - think of it like steel rebar inside of concrete structure.  A pilot can always tell when a tire needs to be replace by noticing a ply becoming visible due to heavy braking or a hard landing.

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Aircraft also deal with the dangerous issue of hydroplaning, but because higher rates of velocity are involved there are three types of hydroplaning taught to pilots to increase their awareness of the issue.

The first is dynamic hydroplaning. This is what happens in a car often after driving quickly through a puddle. The water under the tire does not have enough time to move as the tire crosses over it and the wheel actually rides on a sheet of water and loses contact with the pavement. This is a major issue as not only is there a loss of steering but more importantly there is an absolute loss in braking.

The next kind is viscous or contaminate hydroplaning. This is when water on a runway or airport surface mixes with oil, dust, sand, or some other contaminate that creates a dangerous slurry that reduces the effective braking action of the aircraft. This is usually encountered when an aircraft approaches a parking area where resting aircraft may have deposited oil or fluids while on the ground.

The last type of hydroplaning is what is called in the industry as rubber reversion. This is where a stationary tire accelerates so quickly during landing that the rubber actually forms a superheated steam that completely envelopes the tire. It is like dynamic hydroplaning in the way that instead of the aircraft riding on a sheet of water, the tire loses contact with the runway because it is riding on sheets of superheated steam.

In reality, though, these are not issues to be worried about while traveling on today's commercial aircraft. Runways are designed to eliminate standing water and airport personnel check braking effectiveness of every runway multiple times a day. Along with the advances in airport and runway design, aircraft tires have been improved to drastically reduce the potential of hydroplaning occurring. Using vulcanized rubber in tires enables them to withstand extremely intense heat without losing their integrity, and the treads on aircraft tires are used to channel water out from under the aircraft effectively.

So take a look at the tires next time you are waiting to board an aircraft, they really are the shoes of the aircraft.

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