Flying is boring, according to ATA

[Speed]

David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said the issue may be reckless pilots rather than inadequate training or improper recovery procedures.

"This is more a story of pilots having time on their hands and playing with things in the cockpit that they shouldn't," he said.

Flying, he said, is as boring as truck driving most of the time.

"This was boredom and experimentation, these guys experimenting with things they had no business doing," Stempler said.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-06-13-ntsb-crash_x.htm?POE=TRVISVA

 

[poadeleted3]

I wonder if Mr Stempler is a pilot? I had a genius at work tell me all about how reckless it is to climb high in an airplane. Far as I know, the full extent of his aeronautical knowledge is how to find his seat in the airliner.

 

[Tom-D]

That I don't know. I can vouch for the 'flying is boring as driving a truck', most of the time! Particulary pt 121. As one of my captains put it, we're not flying, we're just system managers.

Things were a bit different when you were required to hand fly the aircraft for 14-16 hours and still know where you are.

 

[Ken Ibold]

I wonder if Mr Stempler is a pilot?

There is no record of "David Stempler" in the FAA airmen database, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is not a pilot.

 

[gismo]

I wonder if Mr Stempler is a pilot? I had a genius at work tell me all about how reckless it is to climb high in an airplane. Far as I know, the full extent of his aeronautical knowledge is how to find his seat in the airliner.

AFaIK the pilots took the airplane up to it's maximum certified altitude. That hardly qualifies as an "experiment" at least as perceived by non-pilots. Assuming the crew followed the book when determining that altitude they should have been able to rely on the airplane and it's engines to function properly. From the transcript of the prelim report I got the impression that the crew didn't follow SOP during the relight attempts and because of that and their failure to orbit a suitable airport in case the engines were indeed permanently offline the outcome was far worse than it could have been, but I can't see any reason to fault the pilots for selecting FL 410. The same erroneous message was delivered by our local talking heads last night.

 

[Speed]

I can't seem to get this to load on my computer, but someone on another board says that the crew intentionally activated the stick pusher several times during the climb, and were seat-swapping as well.

http://www.ntsb.gov/events/hearing_sched.htm#upcoming