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FAA Says No More Minesweeper Or Solitaire In Cockpit
If you like to pass the time playing minesweeper, or checking your Facebook updates while piloting a 900,000-pound aircraft 400 mph, you won't like the latest FAA decision. The agency has asked airlines to create policies to minimize cockpit distractions, including pilots' use of personal electronic devices. "There is no room for distraction when your job is to get people safely to their destinations," said DOT Secretary Ray LaHood. "The traveling public expects professional pilots to focus on flying and on safety at all times."
Should that have been caught when going through security at the airport? I mean, at a minimum, we're talking 10 bombs here...
Does the ban apply to Microsoft Flight Simulator?
"focus on flying and on safety at all times" is staring at a big blue sky of nothing for hours on end. That will put anyone to sleep. Let them keep their minds doing something, who really cares what they do.
Can we please ban them for talking to the traffic control centre too? Just like we're banning cellphone use in cars?
Thanks.
Reminds me of the classic showing two pilots asking aloud "say...what's a mountain goat doing way up here in a cloud bank?". We could add (before this ruling) "sweet! I just beat your high score on Minesweeper.".
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
With the ban on texting and cell phone use with out a handsfree device for public transportation and the trucking industry, who finds this surprising? I'm only surprised that this wasn't already banned.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't modern airliners basically fly themselves once they're at cruising altitude? What are these pilots supposed to do, stare at the unchanging instruments for hours until their eyes glaze over and they pass out? Checking every gauge on the instrument panel every 5 seconds for 8 hours during a transoceanic flight might sound exciting to most of us, but I bet it isn't as great as it's cracked up to be.
Look, for most flights, there's just not a lot to do in between take-off and landing. What are the pilot and co-pilot supposed to do on long flights, where the auto-pilot is doing everything for several long hours, just sit there and stare into space? I'd rather they be keeping their minds awake and alert by playing a video game than getting bored and dozing off. What's next, will they ban reading and talking to each other in flight, too? I'm all for regulations about what they can and can't do just before, during, and after take-off and landing, but this categorical ban seems like good politics but bad policy.
I tagged this "aww".
10 - 12 hrs in a cockpit of an airbus or boeing plane - that for all practical purposes flies itself once at the cruising altitude can kill people with boredom. I agree that pilots cant fall asleep - but without any distractions, including games, I think the pilots will go crazy.....
I think pilots should be allowed to work with their laptops etc., but maybe have a camera in the cockpit to make sure they dont fall asleep, and mandate that headphones should be on. This would prevent stuff like pilots overflying airports.
But give the pilots a break - flying, day in and day out - is not fun!!!
Perhaps the FAA is unaware of this new fangled autopilot technology. Heck, some of the larger planes will even land themselves.
Over what network connection? Use of devices that transmit on an airplane is forbidden by FAA regulations. Surfing the web is out of the question; they have to rely on the porn they have cached on their hard drive.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
they're being paid close to minimum wage.
Remember Capt. Sully retired due to pay cuts.
Do you trust your life in the hands of a pilot working for $10/hr. Yes, I know min wage is $7.15, but in the good old days a pilot could support a wife and a mistress, and sometimes child support as well.
How in the world are pilots supposed to check facebook while flying? I can never get a signal while up in the air.
Will having to do their jobs be yet another reason for the pilots' union to strike? They have enough to worry about flying the plane safely. Dealing with their on-line profiles or playing computer games is not a responsible thing to do while in the plane cockpit.
I cannot wait for the first comment along the following lines:
"Yep, flying a jumbo at 20000 feet right now.
Posted from my iPad."
Hinton Train Collision
One possible interpretation of that train disaster is "Boring work environments make people fall asleep while working after disabling safety mechanisms as necessary to let them do so". Since, with autopilot engaged, there are no mechanisms that require the pilot to be awake, the pilots can fall asleep without anyone noticing...
Smart. Real smart.
I rather have a sleeping pilot than a distracted one. Remember folks, the bigger the organization the least likely it is they make decisions for the common good, unless that somehow collides with the big picture.
Ok I am going to go with GOOD! Honestly I would rather have them paying attention to what they are doing. They chose the job of flying planes and regardless of whether or not theres autopilot I want them paying attention. The have a copilot so if they need to take a break to get some coffee or hit the head they can. But really they shouldn't be occupying themselves with facebook or anything of the sort. I want to be SAFE...maybe this could be a reason for some of the crashes where people say well "its unexplained" as of right now.
They'll be getting that minesweeper time on their iphone while dropping some "air mail" in brown packages.
Camping on quad since 1996.
Otherwise pilots will end up falling asleep or finding something to do with the flight attendants that will most likely be more dangerous than playing minesweeper. They aren't supposed to be doing those either, but if I'm going to break the rules it won't be by playing minesweeper.
"focus on flying and safety" does not require staring at warning lights until they start blinking. It requires keeping your mind alert and being physical able to react when the lights blink and the alarm sounds.
play minesweeper or solitaire while compiling the code for the autopilots. Next stop.. no bugs in software!
There are plenty of high resolution displays in modern aircraft why not just repurpose some of them for playing video games during the cruise phase of a long flight.
If the plane starts to crash the plane would automatically pause the game and present a dialouge to the pilot "The plane is crashing, please do something about it or you'll die without ever having finished your game"
How many of us have been berated for doodling while listening to a lecture in class? It's something that's oft criticized, and yet recent evidence has shown that doodling helps us pay attention by managing boredom. This counter-intuitive result makes it clear that what's really going on isn't always obvious.
I'm not going so far as to say that dickering on a netbook is a good idea when flying a commercial aircraft, but I will say that we should do some kind of study of the real effects of such "distractions" on real-world metrics like accident history, etc. We may well find that "distractions" result in better-qualified pilots remaining on the job rather than moving on elsewhere, and a subsequently reduced accident rate, even if individual pilot performance is somewhat reduced.
While phrases like "900,000 pound aircraft at 400 MPH" sound dramatic, the truth is that the aircraft are almost universally on auto-pilot, are flying somewhere above 30,000 feet, and are being monitored by RADAR at all times, so that any close calls cause planes to be diverted. And a "close call" is anything under 3 MILES of horizontal separation, and 1000 feet of vertical separation, so we aren't talking about a situation where you would even SEE the other aircraft without knowing exactly what direction to look for it.
Statistically speaking, it's safer to fly on a commercial airliner than it is to VISIT a family member in a hospital!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
If you like to pass the time playing minesweeper, or checking your Facebook updates while piloting a 408000 kg aircraft 644 km/h, you won't like the latest FAA decision. The agency has asked airlines to create policies to minimize cockpit distractions, including pilots' use of personal electronic devices. "There is no room for distraction when your job is to get people safely to their destinations," said DOT Secretary Ray LaHood. "The traveling public expects professional pilots to focus on flying and on safety at all times."
This will be a completely moot point when SKYNET becomes self aware.
The *last* thing we need is bored pilots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh_shsRfXqk (monty python video)
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
At least they haven't banned pilots from joining the mile high club....
Hope is the currency of fools
Nintendo DSs are still cool though, right?
Obviously, the free market could've fixed this problem better. The planes that are piloted by minesweeper-playing pilots would crash, leading to less people flying that particular airline.
I mean, you'd have to have a few thousand deaths or so first, but you do have to break a few eggs to make an omelet
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
All work and no play makes Jack a dull pilot
Why don't they do flight simulations? They could practice flying a plane, while flying a plane!
I'm all for letting pilots practice emergency scenarios - or even routine scenarios. They might even re-route the regular flight controls to the simulator as long as switching back control is fast and clear.
They can pass any laws they want, but who enforces them?
I might be wrong here, but at least for the majority of flights are the pilots the highest ranking people on the plane? and I doubt that a stewardess will go so far as to report a pilot.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
This is obviously coming along with the increased focus on removing distractions from driving (cell phones, texting, DVDs, etc). The problem is that flying a plane has almost nothing in common with driving a car, beyond some rudimentary instrumentation similarities and the overall goal of getting from point A to point B. The skies are not crowded like a freeway--a pilot doesn't have to worry about the plane next to him cutting him off on the way to LAX, because there is no plane next to him--flight paths are planned well in advance. The pilot only has to worry about situations that can't be handled by auto pilot, like mechanical failure or turbulence.
So, in other words, the FAA is saying, "We want you to give your full attention to flying, but you can't do anything to keep yourself awake." I don't care how much sleep you get, a 17+ hour trans-Atlantic flight with nothing to do but check your instrumentation is going to bore you to sleep. In trying to improve flight safety, this is going to have the opposite effect.
described Flight 3701:
The two pilots were exploiting the performance of the empty CRJ-200 on the ferry flight. The pilots decided to test the limits of the CRJ, and join the "410 Club," referring to pilots who pushed CRJs to their maximum approved altitude of Flight Level 410 (41,000 feet).
The incident started when the pilots performed several non-standard maneuvers at 15,000 feet, including a pitch-up at 2.3g (23 m/s) that induced a stall warning. They set the autopilot to climb at 500 ft/min to FL410. This exceeded the manufacturer's recommended climb rate at altitudes above FL380. In the attempt to reach FL410, the plane was pulled up at over 1.2g, and the angle of attack became excessive to maintain climb rate in the thinner upper atmosphere. After reaching FL410, the plane was cruising at 150 knots (280 km/h), barely above stall speed, and had over-stressed the engines.
The anti-stall devices activated while they were at altitude, but the pilots overrode the automatic nose-down that would increase speed to prevent stall. After four overrides, both engines experienced flameout and shut down. The plane then stalled, and the pilots recovered from the stall at FL380 while still having no engines. At that altitude, there were six airports within reach for a forced landing. This led the pilots to pitch nose down in an attempt to restart the engines, which requires a dive sharp enough to attain the required 300 kt for a windmill restart to make the blades in the turbines windmill at 10% N2. The captain did not take the necessary steps to ensure that the first officer achieved the 300-knot or greater airspeed required for the windmill engine restart procedure and then did not demonstrate command authority by taking control of the airplane and accelerating it to at least 300 knots.
However, the turbine blades expanded contacting the honeycomb labyrinth seals allowing the metal to scrape on each other when the engine overheated with zero core rotation. When the engine is shutdown at altitude, the core begins to cool and the stator, including the static Interstage Static Seal (ISS), contracts at a faster rate than the adjacent rotating parts in both the radial and axial direction because of its faster thermal time constant. The relative rate of cooling of the stator and rotor results in an alignment of the rotating seal knife-edges aft of the normal operating groove in the static seal. If the clearances are tight enough and the relative cooling rates are right, contact can occur between the static and rotating seal elements. The resulting stiction can temporarily prevent the rotor from turning when only the force of ram air is applied to the core. Air turbine starter (ATS) torque has been shown adequate to overcome this stiction.NTSB Accident Information Brief Update for October 29, 2004 Thus, when the engine cooled, the assembly did not match anymore and the blades could not rotate freely. The crew ended the descent when they had reached 230 kt but neither engine core (N2) ever indicated any rotation during the entire descent. Since they were too high for an APU start, the ram air turbine (known as an "Air Driven Generator" on Bombardier products) was deployed to power the aircraft, and the crew donned oxygen masks as the cabin slowly depressurized due to loss of pressurization air from the engines.
The crew glided for several minutes. The crew then tried to restart engines using the APU at 13,000 ft. This was again unsuccessful. They then declared to Air Traffic Control (ATC) that they had a single engine flameout. At this point they had four diversion airports available to them. After continuing unsuccessfully to attempt to restart both the left engine (two times) and the right engine (two times) for over 14 minutes, while utilizing the emergency restart procedure, much altitude was lost. Despite their four auxiliary power unit-assisted engine restart attempts, the pilots were unable to restart the engines because the
Seriously, most pilots start at a disgustingly low salary and stay there. There's a disproportionate amount of them that receive government assistance, such as food stamps. Starting at 17k/year in some companies, they make less than an assistant manager at Jack in the Box.
Yeah, I want that guy flying my aircraft even more depressed about his job.
Yea for deregulation!
...metric, please.
My UID is prime. Hah!
I am currently doing flight training to a commercial pilot level. One of the things I do as a skills practice is fly on MS Flight Simulator using the VATSIM (Virtual Air Traffic Simulation) network - http://www.vatsim.net/ - and I routinely fly transoceanic flights. We fly with real airline callsigns, following real aircraft routes and timetables. The instrumentation and controls are (for the most part) the same as the real thing. The Flight Management Computers in the simulated planes are exactly the same as the real thing. If you have good equipment, the hands-on controls are almost the same. It's a fun way to pass the time and keep skills up to date...BUT:
It's so boring! Here is an example of what I look at for 9 hours without touching anything: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14584559@N03/4502059275/
When you've got 9+ hours of looking at nothing, and you only have to make radio contact once an hour (North Atlantic Track position reports) there is actually nothing to do. At most, you scan the instruments every couple minutes. Even on the flight sim, I usually resort to what we call "In-flight Movies" which is essentially pull up Hulu and watch something until we next have to change the aircraft controls, which is usually when leaving land or making landfall on the other side.
You have a cruising altitude which is held by a computer, and a heading which follows a little line on your on-board GPS, and a speed which is usually also controlled by a computer(or if not, it's setting a lever to a certain position and leaving it there). There is literally NOTHING for the pilot to do if they can't have some sort of distraction. Some real-world pilots I have flown with read a newspaper or magazine, some play with a Game Boy, DS, PSP, etc Some get up and walk through the passenger cabin just like a "How are you, how's it going?" sort of thing. Almost like a chef in a restaurant would come out to the dining area and ask how people's food is.
On top of the endless boredom, they don't get paid nearly enough. Pilots have one of the lowest returns on their education costs of any profession. Throw in the fact that their skills are there to protect hundreds of lives at a time, and you'd think they would be well-paid.
Making regulations that prohibit them from minor distractions in the course of this endless boredom will most likely lead to highly detrimental results. I would not be surprised to see that there were more incidents with pilots falling asleep than previously as these regulations begin to take effect.
Very disappointing, FAA. Maybe you could instead start regulating things that jack up travel prices, waste fuel, and cause extreme delays, like airlines selling more flights in and out of airports than the runways can physically accommodate in a given amount of time. Or like the stupid TSA requirements that we are subjected to as passengers on commercial airlines.
The airlines are failing, and it's their own damn fault. Unnecessary regulation like this is a waste of taxpayers' time and money, and pushes prospective customers and employees away from the industry.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
Stare at this picture for 9 hours: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14584559@N03/4502059275/
Every hour or so, say "position report"
Congratulations, you have experienced what a pilot encounters for the majority of a transatlantic flight. If you're ambitious, you can even fake some cockpit announcements.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
If the plane crashes, the pilot dies too. If the Pilot feels like doing something that isn't going to jeapordize the flight by reading a book or playing a game that s/he can put down, fine by me.
I'd rather have a pilot whose mind is sharpened by a game than dulled by cloud watching.
I'd rather have a pilot who's staying awake updating his facebook status than one who's nodding off staring out the window at the night sky.
The airplanes are controlled autonomously in flight, and can even take off and land themselves. Pilots are unnecessary unless you need to change course mid-flight for a storm or mechanical or political problem.
As for distraction, all you have to do is set a waypoint alarm, and heed it when it goes off.
We'll never really know what those two dopes were doing when they overshot their destination, clearly they were a couple of morons who don't deserve to drive, much less fly, but making everyone else's lives less safe this way is not the answer.
Ban the auto-pilot. Problem solved!
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Now they can get back to being informed by reading newspapers.
I don't think the original issue is about distraction. The air traffic controllers at Denver and later at Minneapolis tried to establish radio contact with the pilots, and other pilots around that area also tried to radio them. All sorts of speakers would have gone off. For all that the ground is concerned, the aircraft might have been hijacked, except it has not changed its cruising velocity. It's not about distraction. It's not about dozing off. Both pilots would need to fall in a very deep coma for that to happen, or they were simply missing from the cockpit.
I once had a signature.
I refuse to believe they didn't do crosswords and other traditional pass-times back before digital devices. So what's changed here? Were crossword puzzles and newspapers, magazines banned for pilots in the past?
After all the pilot is the first person to arrive at a scene of crash. There are times when playing Minesweeper would be just fine, and there are times when the pilot needs to be on top of things. An pilot flying an airliner is has equivalent of a PHD in aviation. Perhaps we not try to regulate every last action he does.
...richie - It is a good day to code.
Already taken care of! He'll get plenty of water splashed in his face when his jet plummets into the ocean :)
Require this of people working for the Federal Treasury and SEC. I kind of thought that's what they were doing during the last 10 years.
It's bad enough being a passenger on lengthy flights. Being a pilot and making those trips over and over and over again? There has to be a way to allow the brain to relax at certain times. Studies have shown that 20 minutes is the optimal amount of time for class room lessons because after that, the mind tends to start drifting and losing focus. If this is true, then it is likely that a similar situation occurs for truck drivers and airline pilots. If a pilot's mind is going to drift while doing something, I'd rather it not be while watching controls and dials. There should be other protocols and procedures at play instead of simply demanding super-human focus and concentration of commercial pilots.
Hi uhhhhh this is your uhhhhhhh captain, would someone mind checking my uhhhhhh Facebook page?
bun-fhuinneog agam!
Going to have to carrying actual cards again.
A regulation banning cockpit sleep is next in the FAA pipeline.
This is absolutely misleading, everyone.
First off, there is no 'ban' on personal electronic devices on the flight deck. According to both TFA and the original FAA press release, the FAA is asking carriers to create and enforce their rules regarding this. Absolutely NOTHING in the article outright bans them from using them on the flight deck.
Second, this only affects FAR Part 121 operations (read: commercial travel). Part 61 (General Aviation), Part 91 (Private Aircraft and Fractional Owners), and Part 135 (On Demand/commuters) do not appear to be affected by this 'request'.
Don't you just love it when the media jump the shark^H^H^H^H^Hgun on every single non-issue...
BL.
So they make me turn off my personal electronic devices for takeoff and landing, but they don't turn off theirs?
You could always bring in some real cards to play solitaire. Or play heads-up poker with the copilot :)
Nah, just kidding, really.
That accident hasn't been fully investigated yet but as a regular at forums.jetphotos.net I know what has been released so far. The pilots had flown on autopilot for most of the flight and failed to follow proper procedure and disengage it at regular intervals just to feel what the controls are like in case there's ice buildup. They didn't and once they began to prepare for landing and disengaged the autopilot, they had no idea that the autopilot had compensated for extreme ice buildup and thus lost control since the aircraft behaved completely unexpectedly.
Now, there was no distraction involved but the reason why the crew failed to follow proper procedure despite discussing ice is somewhat unclear but some have suggested that despite "on paper" having rested enough, that was not the case since at many commuter airlines, crews have shifts that result in them being stuck away from home and with no hotel room provided meaning that they might get their "rest" in some back room at a small airport.
"Told you I can land this bad boy with one hand, and not spill any coffee in the other. Pay up."
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
They could be pilots during take-off and landing and porn stars with the FAs during cruise. More pay and no boredom.
(cue Barry White music)
At least if one of them's banging the steward/ess, it means that the other one's free to fly the plane.
Eric Baird
Marcus Cole: I spy with my little eye... something beginning with "B."
Stephen Franklin: [annoyed] Boxes.
Marcus: Fine! I spy with my little eye something beginning with "M."
Franklin: More boxes.
Marcus: Two in a row.
Franklin: "And that's when I shot him, Your Honor."
Marcus: I spy with my little eye something beginning with "E."
Franklin: I-I give up.
Marcus: Oh come on.
Franklin: This better not be what I-
Marcus and Franklin: [in unison] Even more boxes!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
A quick review of the replies here suggests that most are unconcerned with distractions in the cockpit. I'm impressed that everyone has such a calm disposition about this matter. What happened with Northwest in MSP was the first time that I know of where a crew lost contact with ATC and overflew a destination because they were distracted and not because of being having fallen asleep. There are several incidents where crews, as a result of fatigue, simply fell asleep. But becoming distracted in the cockpit won't be solved by banning PDA,'s, laptops and such. IMO, existing policies are sufficient and need no adjustments. What does need fixing is the aircraft. The FAA should mandate pilot response equipment on all aircraft in Part 121 (scheduled air carrier) operations. This equipment alerts the crew if a specified amount of time has elapsed with no crew interaction, and escalates in intensity from an alert to a caution to a warning. Improving ground to cockpit communication would also help.
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
Maybe pilots are bored because they are useless?
Most airline crashes are caused by a series of events and circumstances that aren't a problem alone, but add up to a serious risk. The most common one is a fatigued pilot. Pay them enough so they don't need a second job, and mandate reasonable maximum flight times. (currently the rules say a team of two pilots can be on duty for 16 hours).
Depending on where we're going, I paid $200 to $1400 just to get a cramped seat somewhere between the crying baby and Kevin Smith hogging the armrest. I *get* to zone out. The cockpit crew, OTOH, is getting paid to pilot the craft. Their profession does *not* consist of amusing themselves during times of minimal activity. It's not just b/c that's what they signed up for, either.
It's their responsibility to respond in the unlikely case that something goes wrong which requires a person's immediate and full attention. We're paying them ridiculous fees in part so they can sit around and be bored for hours at a time because everything's running smoothly. They're welcome to make productive use of their time to ensure that things are running as efficiently as possible, but I want every task they accomplish directly related to making my trip as safe and efficient as possible.
And if they're actually just sitting around bored for hours on end, then it's pretty easy money.
kind of like the long-haul truckers expected to spend ridiculous times driving and yet still do all the corporate BS so they do it while driving.
If only they were only doing the corporate BS while driving...
Make another robot to monitor that one. Who monitors this one you ask? It's robots all the way down!
It's not the distractions fault, those particular pilots are the real problem and they should be dealt with accordingly. If the FAA really wants to prevent that from happening again, this is the wrong approach. What the pilots really need is some sort of alarm when the're near their target, be it auditory or a small shock to wake them up, whatever. Compliment that with automatically shutting down their distractions and if they still manage to overshoot the target then they shouldn't be flying in the first place.
Here's a proposal for eliminating all distractions in the cockpit:
All personal items must be left outside the cockpit, personal clothing will be removed and replaced with hospital gowns.
I'm pretty sure that will make the aircrew pay attention to the instruments during the entire flight.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Well, it's probably hopeless to comment this late (300+ comments), but y'all missed a key part of the story. You'd think more /. folks would be pilots.
Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) devices are computers which replace paper charts, provide flight planning and management, etc. It's a high margin business. Just like GPS driving direction systems used to be.
And just like with driving systems, the industry is "in transition". Extremely expensive in-dash dedicated hardware being replaced by generic PC's, often tablets. And recently, the writing on the wall of iPhone/iPad. Just like with GPS driving systems.
So what's an industry to do? One whose margins are being collapsed by commoditizing technological change?
Guess who has been lobbying for a ban on "personal electronic devices" in cockpits. Nothing helps ROI like government grants of monopoly.
This is your pilot speaking. There is absolutely no cause for alarm.
*runs*
I think that they are forcing all the pilots to break the rules (these unreasonable rules are made to be broken).
Now they will have all the rights to say that the Pilot didn't follow the rules (by being distracted), therefore the likeliness that all accidents from now on will be classified "Pilot Error". There are around 200 plane accidents per year. After this new rule, it is very likely that the future 200 accidents will be classified as "Pilot Error".
"But, the engine fell off!"
"WAS THE PILOT PLAYING SOLITAIRE?, YES OR NO?"
"BUT THE ENGINE FELL O..."
"DID HE OR NOT?"
"Yes, but..."
"Then it is Pilot Error, he should have known better".
Unfortunately many plane crashes aren't this blatant obvious, and more likely to be blamed to the pilot. Now these rules, I think they have a new tool to blame the pilots more efficiently and avoid the steep indemnification costs.
I will frequently do little things like play games while waiting for a software install or something to help me stay focused on the task, and keep my brain from losing focus and just floating internally. I would much rather a pilot play Minesweeper or whatever, than just sort of space out on that 10 hour flight where he is just sitting there.
One never knows when one might need a rotten tomato... - King's Quest IV: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow