Subject:
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Re: Geography (was: We'll take in your poor....)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 13 Jul 2004 04:07:15 GMT
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Viewed:
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1652 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Frank Filz wrote:
> Flying against the planetary rotation might get you somewhere, I'm not sure
> how all the dynamics work. What I do know is that in the northern
> hemisphere, especially over most of the US, the jetstream is a significant
> contributor to West to East speed. Look at airline flight times.
Basic physics says that if you spin the world in one direction, the air will
(generally) spin in the other direction (counter-rotation, equal/opposite
reaction and such), which should carry you even faster into the rotation and
fight you even harder when you chase it. Forgot about the jet streams... :)
> True, the actual flight times in the US will be shorter than the scheduled
> time. I'm not sure that time of day makes a several hour difference, but
> you're right, flying into or out of Chicago during the busiest times adds
> some extra time to your flight.
A few years ago I watched an expose on the airline industry, and they had a few
pilots anonymously blowing the whistle, they pointed out how flights that
regularly get stuck on the tarmac don't arrive late because their arrival times
are padded to account for the expected delay for take-off, and they mentioned a
few specific flights that did indeed spend an hour or two every day sitting in
line for the runway at overcrowded airports (they even mentioned how some
airlines renumber habitually late flights to keep them off the various
consumer-awareness lists that deal with airline dependability). Between the
drop in post-9/11 tourist travel, the recent move to switch from business travel
to teleconferencing, and the fact that people are getting wiser about avoiding
the overcrowded airports, it'll probably be a lot harder to find flights with an
hour or more delay built into the departure/arrival times. Budget online flight
services also probably shift business away from the peak flight times by selling
"empty seats", and giving the airlines a means of selling evening flights that
help them even out their flight schedule and allow them to either reduce their
fleet or give them more flexibility in swapping out planes for
repair/maintanence.
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