Drinking while flying...

Chrisgoesflying

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Chrisgoesflying
Wonder what you're thinking for having clicked on this thread... I obviously mean good ol' sweet tea. Seriously, my question is, how do you handle your drinks while flying. What is your setup for a cup holder if you have one? I often stop by Starbucks or some other place on the way to the airport and always end up chucking down the drink before boarding the plane because I have no place to put it on the plane. Do you have a cup holder on your plane? If so, please show your photos and describe your setup. I'm especially looking for solutions in smaller cockpits. I have a Piper Cherokee 140 so not interested in your King Air solutions ;-)
 
Bottled water in the seat back pouch. Easily reachable and spillproof.
 
Best speed mod is a bigger bladder.

not an option for many people - I mean how do you do the mod to install a bigger bladder... unless you are advocating using a catheter
 
Usually, we just hold them between our legs. Years ago, I'm in the right seat and Margy is flying. She's a good pilot so I'm not paying attention. I'm doing my favorite aviation pastime of looking out the window. She enters the the pattern and BOOM she smacks me in the face with a water bottle. I'm like "what was that all about?" Turns out she was about to enter the pattern and figured she would need full rudder control so she better throw the water bottle into the back seat. Since she is 5'1" and I am 6'1" I sit a bit further back in the cockit and got in the way of the throw.
 
I wait until I land.

What's the deal with people demanding immediate hydration these days. We went to a high school graduation the other day. The event lasted 2 hours, tops. I looked around and I think I was the only person that didn't have a big gulp, or giant bottle of water, or 1/2 liter of pop. Seriously? It's a two hour event. You can't go two hours?
 
This is similar to what I use in most planes from PA28s to the Beech 18.

I usually set it on the floor and it doesn’t move or spill.

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screw top water bottle thrown on the pax seat or if I have a pax then it fits next to my left hip in the 'notch' between the seat back and left panel.


teeheehee, I said 'screw'........aviation related so thpthpthpthpthpthpthp
 
I wait until I land.

What's the deal with people demanding immediate hydration these days. We went to a high school graduation the other day. The event lasted 2 hours, tops. I looked around and I think I was the only person that didn't have a big gulp, or giant bottle of water, or 1/2 liter of pop. Seriously? It's a two hour event. You can't go two hours?

Because people finally realized that getting dehydrated isn't the most healthy thing ever?
 
Let's circle back and take this topic on from another direction.

Relief tubes.

I haven't used one since my radial engine days. And that was on a ramp with dozens of spectators looking on. As I zipped up & taxied off, a few walked over to my puddle to guess "Oil, gas or hyd?" All were possible. In the end, it was decided it may not be necessary to call me down from the traffic pattern. After all, I was "A person of no consequence." What is the connection with radials and relief tubes? Since, I have had my close calls in the usual collection of Cessnas, Pipers and Mooneys. None with relief tubes.

I later looked at my Luscombe and concluded that it was possible to run some plastic tubing from the pilot's seat down through a gap in the floor were the landing gear leg protruded and down the left LG strut inside the fairing. Just tie wrap the lower end to the strut & install a proper funnel to the upper end and "Ta-Dah!" I regret that I just never got around to it.

I still recall the advice from a salty, old Lt Col who told me " If you ever have any in flight emergency, first, carefully set your coffee mug down and then get out the emergency check list."
 
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I just have a nalgene for sipping, it's all about toeing the line between severe dehydration and not having to use the bathroom
 
For the whole 1G thing to work you need to have both engines off and also have your name be Bob Hoover

 
Incidentally, you guys comfortable with having your passengers drink while flying? Wine, beer, etc?
 
Incidentally, you guys comfortable with having your passengers drink while flying? Wine, beer, etc?

Nope ... Had a fella come to the airport one day for an airplane ride. His speech was a bit slurred and I could smell the alcohol. Told him I wasn't taking him flying as I don't allow any alcohol in my plane. He asked if it was a rule. I told him it was my rule and he wasn't gonna break it.

Edit: § 91.17
(b) Except in an emergency, no pilot of a civil aircraft may allow a person who appears to be intoxicated or who demonstrates by manner or physical indications that the individual is under the influence of drugs (except a medical patient under proper care) to be carried in that aircraft.
 
There is a McDonald's within a short walk from one of the local airports. While I don't recommend anyone eat McDonald's food ever I do like their coffee. So the wife and I stop in and get one of those cardboard cup holders.
 
I still recall the advice from a salty, old Lt Col who told me " If you ever have any in flight emergency, first, carefully set your coffee mug down and then get out the emergency check list."


Sounds like advice for a USN flyer. ;)
 
No puking....if they can hold it down I'm fine. :D

or spilling......sure, u can have a coupl'a beers, but no spilling, no puking, and def no getting on the plane to begin with if you're noticeably buggered up. sheeeit, if I had me a lance I'd have that center drink console stocked with a few cold ones.
 
On long XCs, I have a little box (from a crate of those cutie mini oranges ~ 4”x6”) that I throw in the pax seat. It’s great for snacks and sealed drink containers.
 
I 'member back in the day in the mole-hole of an E-2. I'd bring a 40 oz thermos full of coffee with me. It'd be 140 F on the flight deck and I still be drinking coffee. People always asked how I did that. I always wondered, how they didn't. There were two drawers that were in between the three stations aft that I'd stuff with the thermos and various other snacks.

Not sure what I'm going to do in this Grumman though. On the center console behind the trim wheel maybe?
 
I fly with a yeti tumbler full of coffee and I just put it in the small pocket in my flight bag I've never had it spill doing that.
 
Those things tend to freeze up at altitude. Some people forget that little nugget and "wear" their badge of honor for all to see. And smell, unfortunately.
A former Marine pilot in my area told me of when he was an instructor and in the back seat of a T-28. They were training some where in the P'cola/Whiting area when the "need for speed" hit. He reached for the tube and, as you say, he filled it. Might say that he "put a heap on it." What could he do. He raised it to chest high, told his stud to carefully land at the OLF and called for the crash crew to meet the A/C. A crash team member in a silver suit climbed up on the wing to ask what was the problem. He was holding the full funnel up like he was making a toast and requested any container on the truck be brought over so he could empty the contents. He said that she was the cutest little blue eyed blond crash gal that he had seen and she found an empty soft drink cup in the cab. He told her to be careful climbing down off the wing balancing the cup. It was a nice Florida summer day and he suspected sabotage.
 
Non-insulated Kleen Kanteen wherever I can stash it. But then again, I only drink water in the cockpit.
 
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