February 9, 2020 - 149 - "Frequent Flying Questions"

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  How Much Looonnnngeerrr??

  A frequently-asked question on planes is:
       How much longer 'til landing? 
  
  If the person seems to have a sense of humor I will usually first come back with: 
       "Oh...hours and hours."  (This is really only vaguely amusing on very short flights.)
  
       If there's any remote possibility that it's actually true...it's not funny;  not for them to hear.  Not for me to say. 
  
       NOT funny.
  
       Last night a passenger asked how long 'til we arrive.
  
      I showed him our nifty new app that updates constantly with a countdown to landing.
  
       It has the city code for where we left from on the left side, and the city code for the city we're going to on the right.  The time remaining counts down and a bar fills in very satisfyingly from white to blue as the time decreases to landing.
  

  

  How It Works

  Passenger:  "How does it know that?"
  
  
  Me:  (Thinking:  Really?  Do you think I program these things?)  "Huh.  Well, I don't actually know.  It could be it's talking to a satellite and just giving the GPS update of distance to the next city.  But I'd say it's more likely that it's tied in to the flight plan the pilots got.
  
  Passenger:  (Looking  dubious.)  "Hmmm..."
• Clearly, he didn't like my first answer so, ever-eager to please, I try again...
  
  Me:   "Okay.  The short answer is: Magic!"
  
  Passenger: (Seeming to consider this possibility.)  "I like that." 
  
  And he went on his merry way.  If he'd waited around a moment longer I would have told him that's also how the plane flies.  But he probably wouldn't have appreciated that quite as much.
   

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• "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

• -Arthur C. Clarke  

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• "It's still magic even if you know how it's done."

• -Terry Pratchett

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