Cockpit Confidential cover art

Cockpit Confidential

Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Cockpit Confidential

By: Patrick Smith
Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £14.52

Buy Now for £14.52

Summary

For millions of people, travel by air is a confounding, uncomfortable, and even fearful experience. Patrick Smith, airline pilot and author of the web's popular "Ask the Pilot" feature, separates fact from fallacy and tells you everything you need to know:

  • How planes fly, and a revealing look at the men and women who fly them
  • Straight talk on turbulence, pilot training, and safety
  • The real story on congestion, delays, and the dysfunction of the modern airport
  • The myths and misconceptions of cabin air and cockpit automation
  • Terrorism in perspective, and a provocative look at security
  • Airfares, seating woes, and the pitfalls of airline customer service

Cockpit Confidential covers not only the nuts and bolts of flying but also the grand theater of air travel, from airport architecture to inflight service to the excitement of travel abroad. It's a thoughtful, funny, at times deeply personal look into the strange and misunderstood world of commercial flying.

©2013 Patrick Smith (P)2016 Tantor Anxiety Disorders Engineering Mental Health Personal Development Psychology & Mental Health Travel Writing & Commentary Health Aviation Funny
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c

Critic reviews

"Smith paints an unflinching portrait of modern air travel with several fresh and unexpected insights." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant
Amazing listen for those curious about the finer details of what goes on behind the scenes in passenger air transport, from the lens of a pilot

Brilliant listen for the curious air traveller

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A detailed insight into the nature of flight from a piolets perspective. Overlong but interesting.

full of details

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was learning so much helpful stuff until I got to the chapter where he lists all the plane crashes. I’m not sure what the point is of this, he certainly doesn’t follow it up with a reassuring payoff. A future chapter does cover the stats of flying but I was left with more anxiety of things I’d never considered. As if this wasn’t enough there was a chapter with “The worst plane disasters ever” which was described as “tastefully edited” But I’ll never know, because I put the book down then, never to return.
I think the early chapters have some interesting information and I’m fine with the performance, but I’ve left the book feeling anxious about new things now.

It was all going so well…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great fantastic book interesting helps with fear of flying and clears up the miss understood airline industry

Great interesting book.<br />

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As someone who both loves and loathes flying, (always a slightly nervous passenger) I really enjoyed Patrick Smiths explanations and stories that run the whole gamut of aviation, from a commercial pilot’s perspective. Also Charlie Thurston’s narration had me wondering was his the voice on Baz Luhrmann’s hit ‘Sunscreen? Would recommend.

Loved it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews