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  • Cockpit Confidential

  • Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections
  • By: Patrick Smith
  • Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
  • Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (62 ratings)
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Cockpit Confidential cover art

Cockpit Confidential

By: Patrick Smith
Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
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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

Critic reviews

"Smith paints an unflinching portrait of modern air travel with several fresh and unexpected insights." ( Publishers Weekly)

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What listeners say about Cockpit Confidential

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  • D
  • 20-10-16

Great high level overview of air travel

What did you like most about Cockpit Confidential?

I liked the relaxed approach of the book. Some reviewers have said it feels more like a set of notes than a book but I actually think this is a great strength of the book in general. It's presented in parts as questions and answers which I really liked.

There are other parts that take more of a traditional book approach where a story is being told, but mostly answering numerous questions. Most of them things I've wondered about and some of them interesting questions I never thought to ask.

I listened to the book before reading the author's blog in detail, and I can see why some are saying a lot of the content is already there, but this is a great way to consume the content and you can listen whilst driving to work etc. so definitely worth a purchase rather than sifting through multiple individual blog posts.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Cockpit Confidential?

I really love the answers that talk about the mindset of the pilots and how they adapt and react to various situations. There is a part where he mentions a flight that was stuck in a holding pattern above LAX (I think) and he describes how the media portrayed the event v.s what was actually happening and the reasons for it. You really do see how the media reports on things that they don't really know anything about.

There are a few sections like this throughout the book and they are very interesting. Also passenger rather than media misconceptions. Things like how much a plane is actually moving during turbulence.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

As I've gotten older I've became more of a nervous air passenger and although the book is NOT intended as a sort of self-help book (I'm not so bad to need one specifically for that tbh) but it does put your mind to ease by answering questions you've probably thought about many times when on a plane.

Any additional comments?

I really like the author's passion for aviation in general and although the stories of days gone by may not be interesting to everybody I soon became engrossed in these sections despite thinking I wouldn't enjoy them much.

I think it does go a long way to help you appreciate how cheap air travel really is these days and how lucky we are. I liked hearing about the golden age of air travel and it really got my imagination going thinking how amazing it would have been back then to go on your first flight - We really take it for granted these days.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

What a pathetic rant

I wanted to understand more about flying. I get a personal anecdotes from a frustrated pilot. How petty. Edit it down to the facts.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great interesting book.<br />

Great fantastic book interesting helps with fear of flying and clears up the miss understood airline industry

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • GC
  • 15-12-23

Interesting inside information

For anyone that fears flying then this is the book for you. Convincing safety data that will pacify even the most fearful soul. However one chapter details historic incidents that one might wish to skip. Having said that it is historic and even more reassuring as time has brought improved safety and security parameters.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

full of details

A detailed insight into the nature of flight from a piolets perspective. Overlong but interesting.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

It was all going so well…

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.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Magic!!

Loved it, excellent i would reccommend giving this a try , again brilliant book thank u

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Loved it.

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.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing...

I did not enjoy the narration, it felt over the top and he sounded like a smart-a** who was being sarcastic all the time. If I see this narrator in future, I won’t be purchasing. The book itself felt forced in terms of trying to be funny and also felt like topics did not flow very well. The idea of going with questions really broke the flow for me. Shame as I love all things aviation and was looking forward to this!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Woe is me, says the airline pilot.

Overall too world weary for me. The book delves into the nuts and bolts of commercial aircraft and the airline industry and offers a lot of information and insight. But it's too negative too be an enjoyable listen on the whole and gets borderline conspiracy theorist when it comes to airport security. It is genuinely funny now and then and there is the relief of the odd anecdote but not enough to carry you through the dark clouds. The narration is a bit flat which doesn't help.

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