hi ..ross have just returned from fuertventura and thanks to your information ,i had a great flight ,there was quite a bit of turbulence but it did not bother me ,the best info i have ever read on flying.....many thanks again......john-doe...

No probs John, glad it was of a help to you to understand what's happening.

Anyway off to bed for me, I have to take a load of punters down to sunny Palma in the morning.

How fantastic that we have the knowledge of a pilot on this forum.

The worst turbulance I have experienced is when I went to Edinburgh on my first ever flight it was really bad our drinks went everywhere and the plane kept dropping down suddenly. Luckily my step-father accompanied me and was very reassuring but it could have put me off for life. I must confess to being scared that the plane was just going to drop out of the sky.

I must ask one question that we have as a family, been arguing about for years - does the pilot land the plane on his own or does the auto-pilot do it for him?

Ross you have been very reassuing and helpful. I must fly with Easyjet sometime if they are all as nice and helpful as you. Happy flying

Many years ago when people were allowed to view the flightdeck in the air, people would expect us to be fighting the controls like James Bond to keep the plane in a straight line. People now know we have autopilots and with that came this myth that pilots don't do anything anymore, they just push a button and the plane starts up, taxies out, takes off and lands on it's own.

Aircrat today are very complex machines but they are not capable of taking off by themselves and getting you from A to B. Pilots always do the take off and will fly the initial departure until they have had enough and put the autopilot on, we then control the aircraft through the autopilot during the cruise because it allows us to concentrate on other things and frees up our capacity. Aircraft do have the ability to land themselves but this is only carried out if the visibilty on the ground is zero and we cannot see a thing because the human eye cannot focus on the instruments and then in the very last second be able to adjust to the limited view outside due to fog etc, this hinders the pilot ability to find his bearings it is to dangerous.

97% of approaches and landing are carried out by the pilot. The autopilot is limited to strong winds were it simply would not cope with all the control imputs, the pilots limits in strong wind are much greater because we can judge things better than a computer and we can also react more quickly should something non normal occur.

So the answer to your question is yes planes can land themselves but only if the winds are not strong and is generally only used when the visibility is virtually zero, 9 out of every 10 landing will be carried out by the pilot.

Sure come fly with us and if you are out of Bristol and hear me on board don't be shy ask to come up and see the flightdeck, easyJet pilots and cabin crew are looked upon as some of the best in the industry and will always be more than happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you for such a detailed answer.

After a lot of years flying I am understanding so much more thanks to you.

We are doing more DIY holidays now so I will definately look into Easyjet flights before I go elsewhere for next year. We usually fly from Heathrow or Gatwick but Bristol is only down the road so that is an option I hadn't really thought of before. We're all booked up this year at the moment.

Turbulance will no longer bother me.

Sure come fly with us and if you are out of Bristol and hear me on board don't be shy ask to come up and see the flightdeck

Hi Ross. Presumably that is while your aircraft is still on the ground at the depature gate and not during mid flight?

I think we ought to make that clear as I was under the impression that Flight Deck Inspections *during* flight were strictly forbidden now?

People will always ask to see the flightdeck in flight and they are always told it is not allowed in flight but they are more than welcome when we are parked at the gate, flightdeck access still down for the Captain to decide.

Just for the record flightdeck visits are not allowed in this country at the moment but are still allowed in Spain, France I beileve, as well as many other countires. It seems to be only the UK and America which are strict on this at the moment.

Post edited to remove inappropriate comments which are not relevant to this topic.
David HT Mod

Maybe we can come to Spain with you and visit your cabin when we land

As the original questions about turbulence have been answered and there are signs of discussion drifting off-topic yet again, it's probably best to close the thread now at this point.

David