It amazes me the number if incorrect assumptions you made in your complaint regarding the pilots and the weight and balance issues.
I am a pilot (not for the airlines). You cannot calculate the weight and balance, or center of gravity (nose heavy or tail heavy) until you have a count of the exact number of passengers and baggage that is on the airplane. The temperature outside can literally be the difference between a passenger getting on or the airplane being overweight. The air is less dense when warmer and more dense when colder. This has an effect on the wings ability to create lift during takeoff. You'd be amazed at the little things that effect an airplane's weight and balance that is an aircraft limitation and nothing the airlines or pilots can control.
Secondly, by FAA regulation, an aircraft is required, when flying under IFR flight rules (as the airlines do) to have enough fuel to get to their destination, plus, if they cannot land at their destination for some reason (weather or whatever) they have to have enough fuel to then make it to their filed alternate airport on the FAA flight plan and enough fuel to have 45 minutes more, beyond their alternate airport. In other words, they cannot just remove fuel because the airplane is overweight. If you understood the complexity and FAA regualtions regarding these flights and the pilots, you'd hesitate to make those comments about the pilots being stupid or bad at math. It has absouletely nothing to do with that.
I guess the point I am getting at is that you really have no complaint regarding the overweight planes or fuel. That is part of airplane flying regardless of what level you are at (airlines, or Joe Smoe in his little private aircraft). They have limitations.
As for blackberries and weather. Typical of most passengers to assume that rain and thunderstorms are the only form of weather that effects flying. There can be not a cloud in the sky and not a rain drop in site and an airplane can be delayed due to weather. For example, the winds might be blowing at 5 MPH at the surface, but did you know that winds can be well over 100 MPH at 30,000 feet. I've been on flights that were delayed for over a half hour due to severe head winds, yet there isn't a cloud in the sky.
Passengers checking weather on a blackberry and people complaining about fuel and weight, when they don't know what they are talking about, doesn't mean anything to the airlines. The other stuff, on the other hand, being promised a hotel, etc., is another story.
|