From the Flight Deck

I think I gave the most memorable safety demonstration in aviation history -
I was stood at the front of the aircraft infront of 103 passengers and as I turned around to put down the oxygen mask and get the lifejacket I slipped over on the wet floor and fell onto my bottom.

Very embarrasing - when I got up I had a round of applause so I bowed to them and carried on the demo with my beetroot-red face.

Good times...

The Air New Zealand one scares me O.O

I hadn't seen the underwater one before.

I did one once in quiz-show format. Everyone on board was a very frequent flier and they thought they knew it all. So instead of telling them, I asked them. The one guy who pointed the wrong way for the fire extinguisher location was laughed at so uproariously by his co-workers that I bet he never forgets.

Another time I had the wise guy translate the whole briefing, phrase by phrase, into Dene (the native language of everyone on the airplane). I'm pretty sure he simply digressed into dirty jokes, but they were listening.

You can get away with these things when you know for sure no one on board is from Transport. I know that breaking up the monotony serves the safety function as least as well as the canned briefing, but some TC guys might not have been amused.

Carlton. Thanks for sharing that. I bet it still musters up embarrassment. :)

Luckily, Air Canada's fleet is equipped with individual monitors so we can play the safety demo that way.

But sometimes the system is U/S so the flight attendants have do a "manual demo." I feel sorry for them because they know they are
going through the motions. When I travel in the back, I take a look around and everyone appears to be tuned out.

But maybe that's just me. :)

For me, I make sure I have a crossword or Sudoko to get me through it. :)

Aviatrix. You pegged it by saying we cater to Transport. And yes, you better have all the "T"s crossed and the "I"s dotted if they are on board.

I'm also thinking lawyers must be catered too as well. :)

I also love listening to new pilot students give their first passenger briefings. They come up with lines like "when we crash ..."

Aviatrix. Making P.A announcements takes a certain skill and they can be intimidating at first. During my "command" check ride one word of wisdom bestowed upon me was for ME to do all the P.As. Why? The "check captain" offering the advice claimed it's my ship and you don't know exactly what the F/O may say. I'm thinking, and you probably are too, well If I don't trust them on the P.A then maybe I shouldn't trust them at the controls. :)

My policy is, if the F/O is the PNF then he will make the P.A. But I always ask first.

I do note 98% of them start with, "this is your first officer speaking." One captain made this point when I was an F/O, "what is a first officer speaking?"

He suggested (captain's are great at suggesting) that I should say, "This is first officer Doug Morris speaking...."