Recent content by Dale Eastham

I think the main takeaway is to follow the instructions when the crew asks you to wear seatbelts whenever seated during flight.

I was reflecting on a recent flight with the family how much getting onto the flight deck mid-pacific ocean meant to me when I was a kid (British Airways 747 from memory) & lamenting the fact that children now dont have the same opportunity (in-flight obviously). The flight crew graciously...

Firefighting roles on a ship would likely have much less tolerance for beards - toxic fumes, etc when fighting fires mean that sealing a mask securely when jumping around takes on a whole new level of urgency.

I would have thought through the ground power connection - obviously not. I looked at the stored long-haulers as I went past them in Auckland the other day & realized they didn't have umbilical's attached; I'd not previously noticed this but had rather assumed that they would have been connected...

I feel like this story is too simplistic to be true; surely connecting planes to their equivalent of a trickle-charger would be a straightforward solution somehow? I see planes at airports sealed up, covered up, being wheeled in & out of maintenance hangars; surely someone is charging the...

I willingly (but unwittingly) committed myself to such a flight once; having once been fortunate enough to secure myself the spare seat in an RNZAF CT4, I made the mistake of telling the pilot "I'd done a bit of flying myself" (rookie mistake if ever there was one). What ensued was a series of...

Thank you for sharing that - I've often sat in the 'back' at night wondering what it looks like from up front. When I have a window seat on night flights I'll sit for what feels like hours, looking out at the sky. I imagine that view has to be one of the best parts about the job; im very jealous :)

Thats exactly what was drilled into me when learning to fly (gliders) "that rope breaks right after take-off, you look within 'this' area (held out arms either side of my head like blinkers as I sat in the coughpit, lined up on the runway) - thats where you're going, so pick somewhere". That...

Thank you JB, much appreciated. Perhaps it was vibrations travelling from other parts of the plane that I heard then - it certainly wasn't loud or distinctive. Cheers!

Possibly a very small question, but as they say, the only stupid question is the one you don't ask, so... A while back I travelled in an Emirates A380 - roughly mid-plane, in economy, bottom floor (only a trans-Tasman, so no issue with the seat, but I digress...) When accessing the overhead...

This article made me think: Listen As Multiple Airline Pilots Report Very High-Speed Unidentified Objects Over Ireland The speculation in that article about what the light was is a bit pointless to debate at this stage I think; no-one knows, or is telling if they do. The comment about seeing...

Thats really got me thinking.. I've had it beaten into me enough that it is second nature - ROD by power changes (or air brakes in the case of gliders) & speed by pitch. I must say I'd assumed that airliners & other aircraft were generally flown the same way, how strange..

That just makes me sad..

I don't think I've ever seen an airliner so dirty.. aside from the airlines image looking a bit shabby as a result, do airliners pick up that sort of muck from flying in/out of areas with especially high air pollution levels? A colleague recently came back from customer visits in China & shared...

On a similar note (although im getting further away from what a pilot may know I suppose), on a recent flight I was looking out of a very scratched window that made taking photos of the scenery more futile than usual (I also couldnt get a good photo of the scratches as my phone camera didnt want...