Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel

Ever wanted to ride along in the cockpit of your flight, picking the pilot’s brain on everything from “what’s that noise?” to his thoughts on what’s wrong with airports? Patrick Smith, a commercial airline pilot and air travel writer, has a new book that’s the next best thing to playing co-pilot.

The book, Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel, is a mix of questions and answers about air travel plus personal essays that give the reader an insight into the aviation industry and the realities of being a pilot.

Our favorite part? Smith’s story about going through a TSA checkpoint (in his full pilot uniform, on-duty), and having the TSA agent make him throw away a knife in his bag. The kicker? The knife was a piece of airline cutlery—the same ones available aboard planes, that Smith carries for hotel-room dining. Not only is the knife the same one given out to passengers during in-flight meals, but we imagine that the pilot of a plane wouldn’t really need a weapon to bring down the plane that he’s flying!

Essays like the above, a glossary of airline terms, questions and answers about air travel, and some reassurance for nervous flyers, make the book worth a read. Pick it up for $11.75 on Amazon.

For more Patrick Smith, visit his website, Ask The Pilot, or read our interview with him here.

You Might Also Like:

• Talking Air Travel Safety with Patrick Smith
• 10 Great Beach Reads for Summer 2012
• Flyer Punches Pilot in the Head Over Delayed Flight

(Photo: Patrick Smith)