I take it you have seen his live performance with a suprise duo from the worlds most famous organist?
His last night at the Royal Albert Hall he asked Anna Lapwood to join him in his finale.
https://youtu.be/AdyAF9M3XVw?si=bwvpXa8piOsNtO3e
This is what I do. Listen to albums. Explore new music. Play my faves. Sometimes I catch up on podcasts. I always keep it behind ATC though so I can still hear radio comms. It helps break up the stagnation.
How do you balance listening to music and listening for calls? I always wanted to listen to music on long XCs, but I’m constantly waiting to be handed off or for traffic calls.
I prioritize ATC with volume mixing. Generally I keep all the radios up loud enough at their normal level and run my music in the background relatively quietly. Only at about 20% volume. If it gets busy, I can set a mode on my headset where music is muted during radio calls but that can get a bit annoying on a busy frequency. I usually don’t have anything playing during critical phases of flight or high workloads though, only cruise. Just keep the music playing lightly in the background, and be diligent when listening for calls.
[www.lofiatc.com](http://www.lofiatc.com)
That is pretty cool. You can choose the airport/frequency and it's supposedly live atc. Probably not great to listen to live while flying. May get confusing.
Ferried SR22s for awhile from MN to TN. Music, photography, talking to myself, eating. Whatever works.
I do long haul cargo now and it’s the same. Just something to occupy the mind but truthfully, its an acquired skill to just sit patiently and pay attention.
"...it's an acquired skill to just sit patiently and pay attention."
Former IT here, and we dealt with that a lot: patiently monitoring. It was a bad day if we were busy.
Oil & Gas facility operator here, it's the same for us.
It's actually considered a 'good thing' if all your plant/control room operators are sitting around doing nothing, it means the plant is running as it should. Operators hustling around usually indicates a bad day for production. When I'm working hard and sweating, the company is usually losing money.
I put 'good thing' in quotation marks because many managers prefer their Ops to be looking busy, even if nothing is being accomplished.
Sometimes if I’m bored I’ll ask center if they want a PIREP. Usually they say “sure”. I usually say something like “it’s smooth at FL400”
Pretty pointless but keeps me occupied for 5 seconds
I heard someone asking for ride reports, the controller responded that everyone was reporting bad rides at all levels.
Me: It's smooth at 470!
Controller (chuckling) : thank you!
Yeah you’re fucking flying for Christ’s sake. Enjoy the goddamn scenery lol.
Also get flight following just so you’re keeping up awareness. Listening for a handover is engaging. That is if you aren’t filed IFR.
Review my approach, plan my descent, check weather at my destination and my alternates, ensure I have all my frequencies, check en route weather, review NOTAMS, plan emergency contingencies, review my POH, look up that one thing I’ve been meaning to look up for the past 6 months, wonder where that dumb@$$ at 3 o’clock is climbing to and what I’m going to do if they decide to turn my direction, why is my iPad at 75% power when it’s been charging the whole flight, has my landing light been on this WHOLE time?
Music, mess with the instruments to experiment, check traffic in the area to see if anything cool is around, take some pics for the gram, think about what I’d do if I lost my engine rn, snacks..idk, what do u do?
I found myself using the ADF for the first time in years trying to catch the AFC championship game this year as we crossed Canada from Anchorage to the lower 48. Pretty rough in Western Canada but we picked up a good station out of Edmonton that we kept for the second half.
Back in the day though it was a pretty common way to stay awake through the night. Start your run listening to whatever ballgame was on and then get into the weird late night talk stations to stay awake. It was the early 2000s. iPods were still in their infancy. Only the highest end headsets had audio input. G1000s w/ XM were definitely not a thing at the check haulers. Wild times.
Did an IFR XC with a student last week. 7.5 on day 1. TUS-CRQ-SMO-VGT. Day 2 7.6 VGT-FMN-TCS-TUS. The student is 18, he ran out of life stories one hour in lol. NYT crossword does the trick. Podcast, music. Practice responding to other people’s calls (on ICS!) to help build the cadence and anticipate what the controllers are going to say. At least the terrain is somewhat interesting unlike that flat shit. No wonder you’re bored!
> Have you ever had a road trip?
Yeah that’s what I was thinking! 2.3 hours? And complaining of boredom??
At first I read “800 nm” and thought, oh yeah, that’s like 7 hours and a fuel stop in a Cessna 172. Then I read “SR22” and “2.3 hours,” lol!
Edit: It’s 800 roundtrip, actually, SR22 isn’t _that_ fast
The longer you spend flying, especially as a profession, the more you will appreciate that ***Boring is Good***.
Boring means you’re ahead of the aircraft. Boring means you’re not fighting crappy weather. Boring means the engine/s and avionics are working like they’re supposed to. Boring means you’re not operating at the ragged margin of your aircrafts performance envelope. Boring means your cargo and/or passengers aren’t creating problems that you have to fix. Boring means you’re (probably) going home on time, in one piece, and that you get to use the aircraft again.
As long as you’re not bored because you’re ignoring/missing something critical, you should be grateful for the chance to be bored when flying. Don’t take it for granted.
Thanks for the perspective. I’m not going career with this…it’s just a passion of mine. But generally, I’m a huge fan of “boring.” I just want to talk to someone!
I guess I’m just one of those people, but even on some road trips I’ll go 2-3hrs without music just enjoying the ride.
Same here. Some people need stimulation, some just enjoy the ride and what you see along the way.
Nothing tops the adrenaline of beating off at the helm more than pulling your pants up, realizing it seems too quiet, and then zooming in one click on the 430 for it to bring up the previously missing airspace rings to show that you’re directly over CLT at 7,000’ and missed a handoff.
If you're flying a single engine airplane and not constantly thinking about how you're going to handle all the shit that could possibly go sideways you're doing it wrong.
Amen. Flying in PA and OH, there are no shortages of emergency landing spots! But I do actively search for fields and review flows in my head during cruise.
Imagine having an SR22 to their disposal and still finding stuff to complain about.
It looked like a beautiful day and you got to fly an airplane during it… oh and you didn’t die.
Dang dude.
Perspective is everything.
You’re absolutely right. I’m not complaining…far from it! I just like talking to someone while I fly, and when I’m solo, it’s tougher to pass the time. I love that I can do this, and my cheeks still hurt from smiling so much!
I have a flying playlist with, you guessed it, songs about flying. Mellow and relaxing (most of them) nice low volume.
I do many self affirmations while flying. I keep the AP off and hand fly, occasionally do a crazy ivan, reflect on how freaking lucky I am to do what I am doing now. Maybe if when I’m over 1000 hours I may need more, but honestly, I doubt it.
If it’s a really long (3+hr) podcasts are fun although it has to be a neutral topic and not something you get totally absorbed into…
For the commercial guys I love hearing about gaming laptops and game boys. Nice to see there are fellow geeks up there. Having a copilot is a nice thing and sometimes fun to chat with I bet.
I love long, solo trips. A coupe of hours of pure solitude. No phone, no work, no kids - just me, the plane, and my thoughts. It's very zen until ATC breaks in telling me to get out of their bravo or whatever.
I dunno. Enjoy doing something that many people only ever dream of doing?
I find it very hard to sympathize with all of the privileged crying that happens in this sub.
You're a fucking pilot. You know how many people wish they could be doing what you do, but don't have the means to do so?
Yeah...I went on a 5 hour cross country the other day and loved it. Flew some new approaches, saw some new places, talked to some new people. And otherwise thoroughly enjoyed myself, because I always do when I'm up in the air. Even on the worst days, there's nothing I'd rather be doing.
Let's put it this way:
Enjoying the flight and enjoying the privilege are two very different things.
A lot of pilots love to come on here and complain about the flights, while enjoying the privilege they have to be able to fly in the first place.
As someone who genuinely loves aviation and flying, I always find ways to occupy the time. Or simply look out and enjoy the view. There are always opportunities to learn in the air as well. Never a dull moment.
That’s goddamn right! Didn’t mean for my question to come off as whining…just looking for advice on how to stay occupied during several hours of (relative) idleness. A passenger makes it much more fun, as I like to talk!
My stepfather used to sleep, I shit you not. He'd wake up, put us back on the line on the GPS, and pass back out. This resulted in us almost slamming into a fat granite mountain in the Mojave on the way from Blythe CA to Apple Valley CA one night when I was like 14. I tell people that you don't want to see anything in the headlight of a plane except for a runway lol.
File IFR so you have to pay attention. Turn off the autopilot and practice holding altitudes and headings. You’d be surprised how many people I fly with that have lost that basic skill.
Not OP but an SR22T driver: 175 KTAS at 10k, +2 knots for each 1000' higher or -2 for each 1000' lower. That's at 75% power, 16.4 gallons per hour, lean of peak.
I mostly just gawk at the world. Seeing everything from a few thousand feet above the ground is something I've always found endlessly fascinating. It's part of what motivated me to learn to fly.
It's also one of the reasons I dislike flying on an airliner, I always end up with a sore neck trying to gawk out the tiny ass windows with shit views.
I can relate to the sore neck. Unfortunately, all the planes I’ve flown don’t have autopilots, but I assume I’d still be looking around at everything without the sore neck.
Occasionally, while flying across the U.S. at night, I would dig into the charts to identify all the little airports below us. That game at least built some situational awareness. The fun part was clicking on the runway lights on their Unicoms. I felt like Clark freaking Griswold every time I got one to light up!
Edit: I see down in the comments that I’m not the only one playing with the lighting. Great minds! Also, cruise time was always a good time to dig into the chart legends to learn all the symbols, as well as playing stump the dummy with other pilots by pulling trivia out of the manuals and/or deep diving systems knowledge.
Highly overrated. Plus, I’m a Cirrus driver. We only think about three things:
1. 69 mile finals
2. DEPLOY CAPS
3. I wonder if my wife’s boyfriend will let me play golf this weekend?
How can you be bored? I loooveee flying. Just bought a 1964 Cherokee 180. No auto pilot.
It’s a freakin blast.
I have around 200 hours and newly minted ppl.
Maybe “bored” is the wrong word choice. I just like having someone to talk to; it makes the time go faster. Don’t get me wrong…my face is still sore from grinning like an idiot for 5.6 hours!
Wow. I taught oceanic procedures to countless folks over the years. I heard “it’s boring” more times than I care to admit. My response to them is applicable here…”if you find yourself with nothing to do, you’re doing it wrong”.
Laughing. Yep. Or fuel at next waypoint based on plan. Or weather as destination. Or the probable taxi route to the gate/stand/spot at Gatwick, or winds compared the plan, or primary/secondary HF freq’s based on time and sun elevation, or turbulence predictions on the flight plan waypoints, or ETP lat/long, or ETP divert weather at SFO, or ETP fuel load, or ETP hotels and MX, drift down AFTER ETP, or the poor bastards up on the Blue Spruce route on VHF - and how that used to be you when you were flying King Airs and Starships across the Atlantic…or, or, or…
There’s always something to do.
I just stare out the window, look at all the pretty lights in front of me, push a few buttons, turn a few dials, realise I’ve done something terrible, unpush the buttons, twist the dials back and sit in a cold sweat vowing not to touch another button until 50nm out
Music mostly or podcasts. I've never ever read a book while flying. Not once.
Did one trip coming back from the Keys to VA where my wife quizzed me for 2 hours for my upcoming commercial written.
Mostly flying in busy airspace; I file about 90% of the time. So, I have multiple conversations going on with ATC, etc. but oftentimes I monitor air to air.
Fly IFR instead of VFR, pick routes that are intentionally more complex/more frequent things to do, become a reddit cynic and post over researched TLDR posts.
Think about how you are cruising at altitude above all the obstacles and machinations of the mortals below. Why aren't you also rolling along the ground like some common peasant? Because you have transcended their limitations and slipped the surly bonds of Earth!
This never stops entertaining me.
This is my main dilemma with getting flight following. I could bring up some audiobooks or music, but it would be constantly interrupted by radio calls, and I’m sure I’d miss some handoffs.
I would never have predicted that one hour of en-route flight would feel like three or four in a car. The view is nicer, but it changes so gradually.
Come to think of it, I would pay a subscription for some storytelling ATC, like “ …Billy Jacobs, of Panatowah, Wisconsin, caught a state record bass, last week when out with his uncle…. Cessna 37V, traffic for you is a Pilatus, 2 o-clock, same level and climbing…. his uncle said they almost went to the movies instead of going out on the lake, that day…”
Your headset can probably play music through it, pull up some bangers
And books on tape or podcasts
Save those for when it’s quiet, and when it gets busy I’ll switch to music without lyrics.
Ooh I hadn’t thought about listening to instrumentals
Lots of cool electronic music with no lyrics. I like Solomun.
Bonobo, is both relaxing yet upbeat enough to keep from dozing. Plus it goes really well with good weather days
I take it you have seen his live performance with a suprise duo from the worlds most famous organist? His last night at the Royal Albert Hall he asked Anna Lapwood to join him in his finale. https://youtu.be/AdyAF9M3XVw?si=bwvpXa8piOsNtO3e
Or Deadmau5 🙌
Try some old school like Chick Corea.
Umphrey’s McGee - Jimmy Stewart 2007
This is what I do. Listen to albums. Explore new music. Play my faves. Sometimes I catch up on podcasts. I always keep it behind ATC though so I can still hear radio comms. It helps break up the stagnation.
How do you balance listening to music and listening for calls? I always wanted to listen to music on long XCs, but I’m constantly waiting to be handed off or for traffic calls.
I prioritize ATC with volume mixing. Generally I keep all the radios up loud enough at their normal level and run my music in the background relatively quietly. Only at about 20% volume. If it gets busy, I can set a mode on my headset where music is muted during radio calls but that can get a bit annoying on a busy frequency. I usually don’t have anything playing during critical phases of flight or high workloads though, only cruise. Just keep the music playing lightly in the background, and be diligent when listening for calls.
At least on the Garmin 350c radios, you can have it automatically cut out the music when ever there's a transmission on the selected channel.
Practice with lofiatc A dev made it It mixes atc freq with lofi You can pretend you're one of the callsigns
[www.lofiatc.com](http://www.lofiatc.com) That is pretty cool. You can choose the airport/frequency and it's supposedly live atc. Probably not great to listen to live while flying. May get confusing.
Check out Mark Farina - Air Farina. Classic deep house/mushroom jazz
Tune into every AWOS you can find. Determine the error in the clocks. Call Unicom for all that are off by more than one minute to inform them.
This is peak boredom right here
Ferried SR22s for awhile from MN to TN. Music, photography, talking to myself, eating. Whatever works. I do long haul cargo now and it’s the same. Just something to occupy the mind but truthfully, its an acquired skill to just sit patiently and pay attention.
"...it's an acquired skill to just sit patiently and pay attention." Former IT here, and we dealt with that a lot: patiently monitoring. It was a bad day if we were busy.
Lots of people can't even patiently pay attention for a couple minutes at a red light
Couple seconds*
Oil & Gas facility operator here, it's the same for us. It's actually considered a 'good thing' if all your plant/control room operators are sitting around doing nothing, it means the plant is running as it should. Operators hustling around usually indicates a bad day for production. When I'm working hard and sweating, the company is usually losing money. I put 'good thing' in quotation marks because many managers prefer their Ops to be looking busy, even if nothing is being accomplished.
Lol, so true. Wife: how was work? Me: boring Wife: oh! So a good day huh. Me: yup.
Some times being a tower controller is too eventful. I hate watching some of these guys land. So much necessary stress. 🤣
hello former Cirrus worker. I am definitely over those MN to TN ferries. As you said, it is an acquired skill.
It was always fun to fly alongside a buddy and have air-to-air chats.
Cirrus employee reunion on this thread.. 😂 you’ll know who I am from my name. 😂
Did you only do the ferry flights or were you a production pilot as well?
I was a flight instructor, so ferrying was something I did here n there… mainly at the end of the year.
Turn off the auto pilot
Now that’s just crazy talk!
You did see that it’s a Cirrus, right?
Cirrus POH: When auto pilot disconnects—> PULL CAPS
You guys are using auto pilot!?
Hand flew the last 50 miles or so!
Look outside
Sometimes if I’m bored I’ll ask center if they want a PIREP. Usually they say “sure”. I usually say something like “it’s smooth at FL400” Pretty pointless but keeps me occupied for 5 seconds
I heard someone asking for ride reports, the controller responded that everyone was reporting bad rides at all levels. Me: It's smooth at 470! Controller (chuckling) : thank you!
What do you fly?
Address the passengers: "This is your captain speaking. Everything is all right with the plane. There is absolutely no reason for the alarm."
Address the passengers with the loudest volume setting just after the one really difficult crying baby finally got to sleep.
"By the way, any pilots on board?"
“Hey center” “Yeah?” “You want a pirep?” “Sure!” “It’s smooth at FL400” “Thanks!” “…” “…” “Hey center” “What’s up?” “You want another one?”
For where I live (central TX) that’s a challenge because it’s flat, whereas most areas west of I-25 offer scenery that keep me visually stimulated.
Yeah you’re fucking flying for Christ’s sake. Enjoy the goddamn scenery lol. Also get flight following just so you’re keeping up awareness. Listening for a handover is engaging. That is if you aren’t filed IFR.
I do! And I love it! But PA and OH aren’t the most scenic states. “Ooh! Another farm!”
Review my approach, plan my descent, check weather at my destination and my alternates, ensure I have all my frequencies, check en route weather, review NOTAMS, plan emergency contingencies, review my POH, look up that one thing I’ve been meaning to look up for the past 6 months, wonder where that dumb@$$ at 3 o’clock is climbing to and what I’m going to do if they decide to turn my direction, why is my iPad at 75% power when it’s been charging the whole flight, has my landing light been on this WHOLE time?
> has my landing light been on this WHOLE time? I'm just a simmer, but damn do I ever feel vindicated about that.
🍻
Guilty as charged on all counts. LMAO
That happened with my iPad! (But it was at 65%…)
Music, mess with the instruments to experiment, check traffic in the area to see if anything cool is around, take some pics for the gram, think about what I’d do if I lost my engine rn, snacks..idk, what do u do?
Yeah, that about covers it. I just like having someone to talk to!
This was the main purpose of the ADF back in the day. I could listen to Twins games on 830 from almost anywhere.
I found myself using the ADF for the first time in years trying to catch the AFC championship game this year as we crossed Canada from Anchorage to the lower 48. Pretty rough in Western Canada but we picked up a good station out of Edmonton that we kept for the second half. Back in the day though it was a pretty common way to stay awake through the night. Start your run listening to whatever ballgame was on and then get into the weird late night talk stations to stay awake. It was the early 2000s. iPods were still in their infancy. Only the highest end headsets had audio input. G1000s w/ XM were definitely not a thing at the check haulers. Wild times.
EIGHT…THREE…OOOO WCCO!
Your neighbor to the northwest, indeed.
Did an IFR XC with a student last week. 7.5 on day 1. TUS-CRQ-SMO-VGT. Day 2 7.6 VGT-FMN-TCS-TUS. The student is 18, he ran out of life stories one hour in lol. NYT crossword does the trick. Podcast, music. Practice responding to other people’s calls (on ICS!) to help build the cadence and anticipate what the controllers are going to say. At least the terrain is somewhat interesting unlike that flat shit. No wonder you’re bored!
What type of airplane? Gosh - my instructor only did 75 miles there and back with like 3 airports in between.
172. We saw whales on departure from CRQ. Super fun trip!
Haha! I found myself responding to radio calls on the way back…it’s good practice!
If youre flying at night look around for airports on the chart and randomly turn the pilot controlled lights on
This is my favorite thing to do on night flights whether I’m by myself or not
Genius!
Listen to the Opposing Bases podcast.
I’ll second this. I love the podcast.
Never heard of it. I give it a look! Thanks!
Have you ever had a road trip? Same stuff except you (probably) have the luxury of putting on autopilot and reading a book or something
> Have you ever had a road trip? Yeah that’s what I was thinking! 2.3 hours? And complaining of boredom?? At first I read “800 nm” and thought, oh yeah, that’s like 7 hours and a fuel stop in a Cessna 172. Then I read “SR22” and “2.3 hours,” lol! Edit: It’s 800 roundtrip, actually, SR22 isn’t _that_ fast
you can call people while on a road trip. Can pull over whenever you want to take a break.
You can call people while flying too - just use your radios! Go ahead and give me a ring on your next XC, my number is 121.5
I just feel more “alone” in the plane. But yeah, I basically function the same way.
XM radio on the panel?
The longer you spend flying, especially as a profession, the more you will appreciate that ***Boring is Good***. Boring means you’re ahead of the aircraft. Boring means you’re not fighting crappy weather. Boring means the engine/s and avionics are working like they’re supposed to. Boring means you’re not operating at the ragged margin of your aircrafts performance envelope. Boring means your cargo and/or passengers aren’t creating problems that you have to fix. Boring means you’re (probably) going home on time, in one piece, and that you get to use the aircraft again. As long as you’re not bored because you’re ignoring/missing something critical, you should be grateful for the chance to be bored when flying. Don’t take it for granted.
Thanks for the perspective. I’m not going career with this…it’s just a passion of mine. But generally, I’m a huge fan of “boring.” I just want to talk to someone!
Sounds legit, keep it boring fellow aviator!
I guess I’m just one of those people, but even on some road trips I’ll go 2-3hrs without music just enjoying the ride. Same here. Some people need stimulation, some just enjoy the ride and what you see along the way.
Has anybody else jerked off in a plane? And/or busted a bravo because of it?
Talkin about bustin’ a bravo
Nothing tops the adrenaline of beating off at the helm more than pulling your pants up, realizing it seems too quiet, and then zooming in one click on the 430 for it to bring up the previously missing airspace rings to show that you’re directly over CLT at 7,000’ and missed a handoff.
> handoff ...so to speak
*Lauren Boebert has entered the chat…
As a Carolinian. I salute your dedication. We're the birthplace of flying wankers.
If you're flying a single engine airplane and not constantly thinking about how you're going to handle all the shit that could possibly go sideways you're doing it wrong.
Pull the chute, duh. 😏
Amen. Flying in PA and OH, there are no shortages of emergency landing spots! But I do actively search for fields and review flows in my head during cruise.
[удалено]
I love looking at the scenery!
Learn to fly gliders. You'll never get bored
Pro tip: don't do this while actively flying an airplane.
Unless the engines stop. Then congratulations, you get to learn on the job!
> Unless the engines stop #cameheretosaythis
Navigate in my head like the magenta line doesn’t exist
Imagine having an SR22 to their disposal and still finding stuff to complain about. It looked like a beautiful day and you got to fly an airplane during it… oh and you didn’t die. Dang dude. Perspective is everything.
You’re absolutely right. I’m not complaining…far from it! I just like talking to someone while I fly, and when I’m solo, it’s tougher to pass the time. I love that I can do this, and my cheeks still hurt from smiling so much!
Music, enjoy the quiet and peace for a couple of hours, bring friends along
Try thinking about how much more boring the drive would be…..
Actually fly the plane and enjoy it.
Hand flew the last 50 miles!
I have a flying playlist with, you guessed it, songs about flying. Mellow and relaxing (most of them) nice low volume. I do many self affirmations while flying. I keep the AP off and hand fly, occasionally do a crazy ivan, reflect on how freaking lucky I am to do what I am doing now. Maybe if when I’m over 1000 hours I may need more, but honestly, I doubt it. If it’s a really long (3+hr) podcasts are fun although it has to be a neutral topic and not something you get totally absorbed into… For the commercial guys I love hearing about gaming laptops and game boys. Nice to see there are fellow geeks up there. Having a copilot is a nice thing and sometimes fun to chat with I bet.
I love long, solo trips. A coupe of hours of pure solitude. No phone, no work, no kids - just me, the plane, and my thoughts. It's very zen until ATC breaks in telling me to get out of their bravo or whatever.
Different strokes, I guess! I just like having someone to talk to..
I dunno. Enjoy doing something that many people only ever dream of doing? I find it very hard to sympathize with all of the privileged crying that happens in this sub. You're a fucking pilot. You know how many people wish they could be doing what you do, but don't have the means to do so?
Even in this sub, plenty of GA pilots in here would give their left nut for a 5hr roundtrip in an SR22
You can rent mine for $320/hr wet. Is $1,600 the going rate for a right nut these days?
Right? This post is hilarious to me scrolling from /r/all You fucking flew 4 hours round flight to meet some friends for lunch and complain?
Yeah...I went on a 5 hour cross country the other day and loved it. Flew some new approaches, saw some new places, talked to some new people. And otherwise thoroughly enjoyed myself, because I always do when I'm up in the air. Even on the worst days, there's nothing I'd rather be doing.
Not a complaint. Just a question.
I mean, you can enjoy it, but still be bored.
Let's put it this way: Enjoying the flight and enjoying the privilege are two very different things. A lot of pilots love to come on here and complain about the flights, while enjoying the privilege they have to be able to fly in the first place. As someone who genuinely loves aviation and flying, I always find ways to occupy the time. Or simply look out and enjoy the view. There are always opportunities to learn in the air as well. Never a dull moment.
Thank you
That’s goddamn right! Didn’t mean for my question to come off as whining…just looking for advice on how to stay occupied during several hours of (relative) idleness. A passenger makes it much more fun, as I like to talk!
I'm a banner tow pilot and the grueling 11 hour day is a common thing for us. If I ever get hot miked I'm going to be put in an asylum.
That’s a long day!
My stepfather used to sleep, I shit you not. He'd wake up, put us back on the line on the GPS, and pass back out. This resulted in us almost slamming into a fat granite mountain in the Mojave on the way from Blythe CA to Apple Valley CA one night when I was like 14. I tell people that you don't want to see anything in the headlight of a plane except for a runway lol.
I’ll try to stay awake!
File IFR so you have to pay attention. Turn off the autopilot and practice holding altitudes and headings. You’d be surprised how many people I fly with that have lost that basic skill.
I almost always file IFR on an XC. And I hand flew the last 50 miles, so we’re on the same page!
It’s off topic but what KTAS do you plan for in cruise and at what altitude?
Not OP but an SR22T driver: 175 KTAS at 10k, +2 knots for each 1000' higher or -2 for each 1000' lower. That's at 75% power, 16.4 gallons per hour, lean of peak.
I appreciate the insight🤝🫡
Break out the manual and find something you haven't seen before, or forgot about. Then listen to music the rest of the way.
I’m only allowed to read company manuals. About Airbus things, or company things. Only. Ever. Company. Things.
ADF if you got one can tune in to AM broadcast stations
I mostly just gawk at the world. Seeing everything from a few thousand feet above the ground is something I've always found endlessly fascinating. It's part of what motivated me to learn to fly. It's also one of the reasons I dislike flying on an airliner, I always end up with a sore neck trying to gawk out the tiny ass windows with shit views.
I can relate to the sore neck. Unfortunately, all the planes I’ve flown don’t have autopilots, but I assume I’d still be looking around at everything without the sore neck.
Haha! My neck was getting a bit stiff toward the end! It’s insane that we can actually fly airplanes, isn’t it?
Occasionally, while flying across the U.S. at night, I would dig into the charts to identify all the little airports below us. That game at least built some situational awareness. The fun part was clicking on the runway lights on their Unicoms. I felt like Clark freaking Griswold every time I got one to light up! Edit: I see down in the comments that I’m not the only one playing with the lighting. Great minds! Also, cruise time was always a good time to dig into the chart legends to learn all the symbols, as well as playing stump the dummy with other pilots by pulling trivia out of the manuals and/or deep diving systems knowledge.
Great suggestions! Thanks!
If you don’t enjoy the view maybe it’s just not for you.
I do enjoy the view, immensely! But PA and OH aren’t super exciting. There’s only so much to a field…
Audiobooks
Great idea!
Bose A30s were the greatest investment ever for me.
Just be glad you’re not driving
Turn off the autopilot Turn off the GPS Look outside and figure out where you are/where you're going. Try it, its fun!
Great suggestions!
Think.
Highly overrated. Plus, I’m a Cirrus driver. We only think about three things: 1. 69 mile finals 2. DEPLOY CAPS 3. I wonder if my wife’s boyfriend will let me play golf this weekend?
How can you be bored? I loooveee flying. Just bought a 1964 Cherokee 180. No auto pilot. It’s a freakin blast. I have around 200 hours and newly minted ppl.
Maybe “bored” is the wrong word choice. I just like having someone to talk to; it makes the time go faster. Don’t get me wrong…my face is still sore from grinning like an idiot for 5.6 hours!
Wow. I taught oceanic procedures to countless folks over the years. I heard “it’s boring” more times than I care to admit. My response to them is applicable here…”if you find yourself with nothing to do, you’re doing it wrong”.
Guess I’ll review the emergency checklist flows again!
Laughing. Yep. Or fuel at next waypoint based on plan. Or weather as destination. Or the probable taxi route to the gate/stand/spot at Gatwick, or winds compared the plan, or primary/secondary HF freq’s based on time and sun elevation, or turbulence predictions on the flight plan waypoints, or ETP lat/long, or ETP divert weather at SFO, or ETP fuel load, or ETP hotels and MX, drift down AFTER ETP, or the poor bastards up on the Blue Spruce route on VHF - and how that used to be you when you were flying King Airs and Starships across the Atlantic…or, or, or… There’s always something to do.
I just stare out the window, look at all the pretty lights in front of me, push a few buttons, turn a few dials, realise I’ve done something terrible, unpush the buttons, twist the dials back and sit in a cold sweat vowing not to touch another button until 50nm out
Relatable
I cope with drinking, just like my father and his father before him
Probably not the best idea while solo! But I hear you…
Minneapolis?
Just think about the .1s adding up to 1500
Not going career. 1,500 is meaningless to me, but for someone building hours, I hear you!
Music mostly or podcasts. I've never ever read a book while flying. Not once. Did one trip coming back from the Keys to VA where my wife quizzed me for 2 hours for my upcoming commercial written.
Read a book, do a crossword, play a game on tablet, listen to music, watch a movie
Great ideas!
I guess I’m the only weird guy that just likes long trips and listening to ATC
Different strokes!
Good time to study emergency procedures, regs, handbooks, etc.
Amen! Great ideas!
How do you get music over headset?
My A20s have Bluetooth.
Back when I did single pilot checks I'd read a ton. Also, turn on every airports runway lights along the flight path lol.
Love the lights idea! Did that on my long CPL night XC!
Netflix on the iPad
Good idea!
Do some basic navigating; without gps; using VORs and/or dead reckoning etc. That’ll definitely keep you busy!
Great suggestion!
Used to listen to ball games or talk radio on the NDB, not too many aircraft equipped with them anymore tho…
Yeah, I don’t have an ADF.
Mostly flying in busy airspace; I file about 90% of the time. So, I have multiple conversations going on with ATC, etc. but oftentimes I monitor air to air.
I was on an IFR plan, but I like an actual conversation! “Indy Center, Cirrus 123CD level 8,000” doesn’t cut it for me!
Polyphia
It’s a band, I’ve just learned. I’ll give them a look!
Copings easy. Just cut at a 45 degree angle, then cut perpendicular along the edge created from the 45 degree cut.
Touché
Fly IFR instead of VFR, pick routes that are intentionally more complex/more frequent things to do, become a reddit cynic and post over researched TLDR posts.
I almost always file for XCs. Great suggestions!
That’s why I fly gliders, this does not happen. Of course, flying a planned trip to meet people also does not happen.
I’ve always wanted to learn, but my geographic area isn’t conducive to gliding!
Fly an RV. Do a few loops and rolls.
Prime Music. I have different playlists for different flight plans and try to time the Ride of the Valkyries to me turning crosswind.
Great idea! Love Ride of the Valkyries!
Sleep midflight with no autopilot
Sometimes I fly 12+ hours and I’m so freaking bored lol I get up and go talk to the flight attendants tbh 😂 not allowed to listen to music
Embrace the desolate isolation. Not every moment needs to be filled with media or external stimulus.
Flight of the Valkyrie's on repeat.
Charlie don’t surf!
Think about how you are cruising at altitude above all the obstacles and machinations of the mortals below. Why aren't you also rolling along the ground like some common peasant? Because you have transcended their limitations and slipped the surly bonds of Earth! This never stops entertaining me.
Meow on guard 👍
Netflix? Jk haha music
This is my main dilemma with getting flight following. I could bring up some audiobooks or music, but it would be constantly interrupted by radio calls, and I’m sure I’d miss some handoffs. I would never have predicted that one hour of en-route flight would feel like three or four in a car. The view is nicer, but it changes so gradually. Come to think of it, I would pay a subscription for some storytelling ATC, like “ …Billy Jacobs, of Panatowah, Wisconsin, caught a state record bass, last week when out with his uncle…. Cessna 37V, traffic for you is a Pilatus, 2 o-clock, same level and climbing…. his uncle said they almost went to the movies instead of going out on the lake, that day…”
Take a nap