That crash in Indonesia sort of ****ed my fear of flying method of booking

[Burney]

It's a pressure differential sensor to be honest.

Yes, but still a flowmeter nonetheless.

[Burney]

What do you mean you can't tell how fast you are going? Just look out the feckin window and see how fast the clouds and birds are zipping by. Do you Airplane Johnnies ever actually fly sober?

When you're in a hairyplane, h, do you ever feel like you're bombing along at 500 mph? I'm guessing you don't. And if you ever do, you're probably in trouble. There's your problem, y'see?

[Sir C]

. . . . . . . .

Until the thirties airspeed was generally measured by a strut-mounted vane. This device was, as you can imagine, less than accurate and prone to huge position errors, but in a biplane with a stalling speed of 45kt and a VNE of 90kt this wasn't too much of a problem - anywhere in the middle would suffice for most purposes. Your 300 ton airliner is a different beast, sadly.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

In a large airliner, especially at lower altitudes, is a stall basically curtains?

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

When you're in a hairyplane, h, do you ever feel like you're bombing along at 500 mph? I'm guessing you don't. And if you ever do, you're probably in trouble. There's your problem, y'see?

First time my boy flew, about 4 yrs old, fell fast asleep just before take off. Woke up an hour into the flight, looked out of the window and asked "why have we stopped?" Same problem.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

Yes, but still a flowmeter nonetheless.

Actually no b. It is, as c rightly points out, an instrument that indicates the difference in air pressure of the two environments it monitors. That airspeed may be inferred from the data is undeniable, but that doesn't make it a flowmeter. A flowmeter measures actual flow. All in the name d'ye see?

[Sir C]

In a large airliner, especially at lower altitudes, is a stall basically curtains?

An airliner behaves like any other aircraft really, so it's simply a question of whether one has sufficient height to trade for airpseed. In short, the lower the height the less the chance of recovery. (Let us not go into possible complications of a deep stall scenario in a swept wing aircraft.)

[Sir C]

Yes, but still a flowmeter nonetheless.

It may be, but in this circumstance the term is potentially misleading and unhelpful.

[Rich]

Little tube which pokes out of the aeroplane to determine how fast you're going. On the ground you put a little condom on it to stop waspies and so forth from entering the system. If you forget to remove said condom, you can't tell how fast you're going and soon enough, soankeroo will occur.

Need to fly to Newark in a couple of weeks with work and booking flights today or tomorrow. My choices seem to be BA, Virgin, Lufthansa or United. Who has the best business class setup of the four?

[Sir C]

Need to fly to Newark in a couple of weeks with work and booking flights today or tomorrow. My choices seem to be BA, Virgin, Lufthansa or United. Who has the best business class setup of the four?

Lufthansa. The rest are utter shíte.