The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Can Just Anyone Fly A Jumbo Passenger Jet?

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

It's an end bit special today as we approach the holidays. Topic One is that old daydreaming habit many of us have when we fly on a passenger jet -- if something happens to the pilots, could we takeover even with no real flying experience? A surprising number of us think we could. That's just one of more than half a dozen end bits you will find interesting.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's an NBIT special. We got lots of goodies for you. Coming right up. And welcome to Tuesday. Tuesday of the week before Christmas. The holidays are upon us. So, I promised today would be an end bit special, because I've got a whole pile of them. I want to move them out before the end of the year. So today's a great day to do that. They're all interesting.

Every one of them's got a little bit of information in there for you to consider, to think about. Before we get to the first one, how about this update? I mentioned yesterday that Thursday, we'd look for letters from you in the Your Turn inbox. Letters from you talking about perhaps your favorite memory or your most lasting memory of this season. We did this a month and a half ago on Remembrance Day, and it was amazing. Some of the letters you wrote were just incredible. And so we're looking for the same kind of idea, things that have made a difference in your life at this time of year.

And already last night, we got quite a few letters came in. So we're looking for more. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. I'll go through them. I'll pick, I was saying three, you know, three, maybe four, maybe five. We'll see how, we'll see the quality of the letters that come in. And we'll pick the number one

memory letter. I shouldn't say we. We implies that there's whole staff here. There is not, there's me. I'll pick one. And that winner, from wherever he or she is in the country, will get delivered to them, not in time, I don't think, for next Monday, but as quickly as possible. A signed copy of the latest book by Mark Bulgich and myself, How Canada Works. On the bestseller list, we're very happy with the way it's been moving,

and we would love for you to have your own copy, depending on the letter you write. So that's themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com. Make sure you include your name and where you're writing from, and we'll get back to and where you're writing from. And we'll get back to you if you're the winner. All right? So that's that.

That's for Thursday of this week. Especially your turn and the Random Ranger as well on Thursday. Tomorrow it's Bruce's last show with Smoke, Mirrors, and the Truth. He'll be staying with us for Fridays with Chantel on Good Talk. But he's got so much work in front of him these days that he's just got to beg off the regular Wednesdays. He may make the odd visit in and have a special edition of Smoke whenever he can do that. Okay. Today's in bits, right?

And if you're unfamiliar with that term, we keep a pile of things. They're kind of like filler material in shows that are maybe running short. And there's, and the pile gets bigger because we rarely ever run short. But they're all good.

They're all interesting. And so let's get at her. Here is the first one. These are in no particular order, okay? I mentioned this, I don't know, a week, two weeks ago, I said I was going to do this, and I just haven't had an opportunity until now. How many times when you're flying on an airplane, you're on some big trip, and you start kind of dazing off, and you're thinking, and you're kind of looking around the plane,

and you're going, what happens if the pilots can't fly this plane anymore? They'll be looking for someone on the plane who has flying experience. What if there's nobody on the plane with flying experience? Somebody's going to have to step forward. And could I do it? Could I step forward and say, let me at it. Let me at the controls, like some of those great movies you've seen where something like that happens. Or my favorite all-time airplane movie, Airplane.

So, here's the story. It was in the CNN travel section. It was based on something that happened on a discussion that was on the website, The Conversation, which is kind of a conversation between journalists and academics on different scenarios. Anyway, the headline for this story is, almost half the men surveyed think they could land a passenger plane. And when we're talking about passenger plane, we're talking about a big plane, right?

We're not talking about a little plane. You hear those stories every once in a while about, you know, some guy who was up on a little single engine aircraft and the pilot had a heart attack and was incapacitated. And the passenger, who was not a pilot, had no flying experience, managed to land the plane by talking to the air traffic control tower, who brought up an expert on flying, who talked him down. That's one thing. Landing a 747 or some big passenger jet, one of the heavies as they call them, that's a little different situation. So what do the experts say? What do the experts say happens when the announcement comes over, ladies and gentlemen,

both pilots are incapacitated. Are there any passengers who could land the plane with assistance from air traffic control? That's the one you have in your daydreams, right? When you're flying, I'm going to get up. I'm going to save everyone on this plane. Well, the research indicates about one-third of adult Americans think they could safely land a passenger plane with air traffic controls guidance. Among male respondents only, the confidence level rose to nearly 50%. Absolutely, I could land that plane. Can a person with no prior training simply guide everyone to a smooth touchdown?

Doesn't sound like the experts think that's possible. Here are some of the reasons. A pilot spends about 90% of their time monitoring autopilot systems and making sure everything is working as intended. The other 10% is spent managing problems, taxiing, taking off, and landing. Takeoffs and landings are arguably the most difficult tasks pilots perform and are always performed manually. Only on very few occasions, and in a handful of aircraft models, can a pilot use autopilot to land the aircraft for them.

This is the exception, not the rule. For takeoff, the aircraft must build up speed until the wings can generate enough lift to pull it into the air. The pilot must pay close attention to multiple instruments and external cues while keeping the aircraft centered on the runway until it reaches liftoff speed. Once airborne, they must coordinate with air traffic control, follow a particular path, retract the landing gear, maintain a precise speed and direction, all while trying to climb. Landing is even more complicated and requires having precise control of the aircraft's direction and descent rate. To land successfully, a pilot must keep an appropriate speed

while simultaneously managing gear and flap configuration, adhering to air traffic regulations, communicating with air traffic control, and completing a number of paper and digital checklists. Once the aircraft comes close to the runway, they must accurately judge its height, reduce power, and adjust the rate of descent, ensuring they land on the correct area of the runway. And then they've got to taxi to the terminal building,

although I assume if one of us was landing that plane and just simply got it onto the ground, that would be the end of the flight. We wouldn't have to go find a gate. We'd just end, we'd stop there. They'd come to us. Okay, so that gives you an idea of how complicated things can be. And to get to that stage, you know, you've got to train as a pilot.

And that goes through a series of things, you know, getting a recreational license, a private license, a commercial license, hours and hours of flying, and lots of ground school. You've got to study aerodynamics, air law, flight rules, meteorology, human factors, navigation, aircraft systems, performance, and flight planning. So it's a little more complicated than getting up from your bag of peanuts, heading up into the cockpit, say, let me sit down and we'll handle this, no problem. This article goes on, you'll find it in CNN Travel, but you get the image.

It's a lot more complicated than we might make in our dreams, right? Here's our next story. And I mentioned this yesterday as a tease. This is on National Public Radio. This time of year

we get together, right? Families get together, small holiday dinners, Christmas dinners to get the turkey. Sometimes those small dinners are bigger dinners. Sometimes they're really big. The whole family's there. Family you haven't seen since last Christmas. And, you know, some of those meals turn into, like, you know, family fights, right?

So NPR writes four scenarios that can ignite a family fight and 12 strategies to minimize them. I'm not going to read all 12, but I'll... You know, the first one, when somebody says something that you know is going to lead to an argument, a disagreement, hurt feelings, the whole bit. For example, your aunt keeps asking, when are you going to get married?

And that's clearly a topic that you don't want to get into, right? So they say the first solution is avoid her. Conflict avoidance is often framed as cowardly, like you're hiding from an important conversation or a moment of growth. Avoid her. Conflict avoidance is often framed as cowardly, like you're hiding from an important conversation or a moment of growth. But if you don't have the time and energy, or you just don't want to engage on this topic, that's fine.

Avoid her. Set boundaries, sometimes physical. You don't want to sit at that end of the table because you know what's coming. There's certain people in our families who know how to push buttons, says the article on NPR. So going into a family event, identify those people who generally do that and stay away from them.

Here's a different one. Your uncle wants to discuss a controversial topic. Now, this has happened a lot in the last, well, the last half dozen years, right? It could be, the topic could be Donald Trump. Right? That's not just an exclusive conversation for our American friends. That happens everywhere. So conspiracy theories.

There's probably somebody in your family who's a big believer in conspiracy theories and wants to float them at the dinner. And that just, all hell breaks loose after that, right? Same with the Trump stuff. So, how do you ensure that doesn't happen? That can be pretty hard. You know, obviously, you try to find something else to talk about. If you know that the conversation is going to head towards Trump

or conspiracy theories, change the subject. You can even be cheeky about it. Now, one of the suggestions here is play the three-question game. Wow, we're really not going to agree on that topic, but I bet in three questions I can find something you and I do agree on. So the new topic is usually something very simple like nachos or dogs. But that's all it needs to be. Move the conversation to something you can agree on.

That sounds probably easier than it's going to be. I tell you, especially if you're a journalist at the table, you're going to get constantly harangued by the other people at the table about, why do you do this story? Why do you do that story? Why are you so unfair to this or that or the other? Productively disagree. There's an interesting way to go about this.

To demonstrate you're engaging in the conversation in good faith, acknowledge your uncle's points. You don't have to agree with him, but you might say, I see you've put a lot of thought into your defense of Donald Trump. It makes sense you see it from this angle and then quickly move on. But if your uncle starts spewing misinformation, you might say, I'd be interested to see your sources. Can you forward the links?

I'd love to look at that. This approach gently encourages fact-checking while showing your intrigue by what he has to say. I sometimes get into that kind of a discussion with some of you who may write about something, and I said, you know, I hadn't heard that. Can you send me the link? And either I end up with a link from an untrustworthy source or I don't hear back.

Here's another scenario. There's the third one. One of the members of the family, let's say it's a cousin, is putting you down. Now, you can defend yourself. You're allowed to draw a line. If this were a friend's party or a workplace event, somebody was treating you the same way, how would you behave? The family doesn't mean a ticket to abuse. You get to decide how people speak to you.

Now, sometimes it's intended as good-natured ribbing, but comes off as abuse. And I raise my hand. I've been guilty of that myself. I've been guilty of that sometimes with my sister. And I get in trouble when I'm that way. And I should I've got to try harder not to be that way. Here's the last one.

You actually regret coming to the party. You regret either hosting the dinner party or coming to it. So you have to ask yourself, why is this event important to me? Why am I attending it? Maybe I want to spend time with my cousin who's going through terminal illness. Maybe I want to be lazy and watch TV on the couch and not engage. All of it is cool. It's okay. Asking yourself that question, why, can be your anchor. Another solution to this problem is make a time limit. Remind yourself that whatever's happening right now is short term. It's a year before the next dinner like this. And this particular one's going to be over in an hour.

And you're going to go home and you're going to relax. So take it easy. Move on. Let it pass. Thanks to National Public Radio for all those hints. On that topic, how do the people who are happiest in our world, how do they become happy?

What is it about them that allows them to be happy? So there's eight of them in this article in the U.S. Sun newspaper. So tick off how many of these eight you have. What you eat for breakfast and how much sleep you can affect your overall happiness, they are important. So let's talk about them. First of all, the happiest people seem to live in areas where they grow the oldest, where they attain the highest age.

They regularly live to 100. There are five regions in the world where people live to be 100, regularly live to be 100. And those regions, they're obviously happy, right? The longer you live, the happier you are, one assumes. Those five regions are Sardinia in Italy, Icaria in Greece, Nicoya in Costa Rica,

Loma Linda in California, and Okinawa in Japan. You know, it's funny. In 2019, we were researching a documentary. I was still doing some contract work for the CBC. We were researching a documentary on how do people who live the longest live the longest? What is it about them? And we circled Sardinia in Italy. That's where we were going to go, and we started to make arrangements

because that is one of the places where people regularly live to 100. We had it all arranged and what happened bang the pandemic hit never got to go so i don't know those secrets um okay here are the here are the eight reasons, or the eight things. You can circle the ones that work for you. Sleep at least eight hours a day. Well, that's not going to happen for me. I can't get, I'm lucky to get six. If you're sleeping six hours, says the researcher here,

you're about 30% less happy than you would be if you slept eight hours a day. I did not know that. Poor or inadequate sleep can cause irritability and stress, while healthy sleep can enhance well-being. Makes sense. Two, eat a plant-based breakfast. Turns out starting the day right can have wide-reaching effects. Stay away from overly sweet and fatty foods in the morning.

If you eat a big fatty breakfast or sugary cereal, you're going to be hungry by midday. You're going to have less energy throughout the day. Socialize. Socialize. Socialize daily. Make sure you have coffee with a friend. You have lunch with a friend. Hey, some of us have jobs, right? You want to make sure to

engineer in four to five hours, or six if you can, of social interaction with people you like. Really? How are you going to do that and have a job at the same time? Four, here's one we can all do. Volunteer. Find a little time to give back every day. Volunteers are happier than non-volunteers.

That's research from the University of East Anglia. Nap. You know, when you're not socializing, take a nap. Research has shown naps of under 30 minutes make you more focused productive and creative okay work part-time i guess so if you're socializing and napping there's not going to be much time for work so you're clearly going to be working part-time trials of four-day work weeks have in, found that working less could make us happier and healthier.

Well, I'm about to find that out. The bridge is going to a four-day schedule, starting after the holidays. At the moment, what's looking like we're going to take Wednesdays off. It will be a best-of show on Wednesdays. But Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, the bridge will be here. Have faith. Belonging to a faith doesn't matter what the faith is.

It stacks the deck in favor of happiness. Okay. And the final one, limit TV and social media. Okay. we're all going to agree on that that that's what we should do are we going to do it especially when the experts say about 30 minutes a day of each social media and TV is optimal. 30 minutes? Okay.

Well, after socializing and napping, you only have about 30 minutes left. So you're going to have to pick one or the other, TV or social media. Okay, you happy now? Everybody happy? We have more to say on sleep, but we're going to take our break because I'm exhausted already. And, you know, we can all use a little break time apart from our socializing, napping, and social media time,

we can have a quick break. We'll be right back after this. And welcome back. You're listening to The Bridge right here on SiriusXM, Channel 167, Canada Talks, or on your favorite podcast platform. I'm Peter Mansbridge in Stratford, Ontario, and you're listening to The Bridge,

the Wednesday edition. I'm getting ahead of myself here. The Tuesday episode, it's a kind of in-bit special, right? Lots of good information that we can store away about how to spend your day. To be happy, because that is our goal, is to be happy. Here's the headline from Yahoo News, and this follows a little bit on our last item before the break. Why does sleep become more elusive as we age

it has to do apparently with shifts in sleep architecture how much do you sleep we've asked this question a few times before i mean the older you get it seems the the less sleep you get for the average person. A third of, did I say where this was from? Yeah, in the Yahoo News. So these are U.S.-based stats once again. A third of U.S. adults report that they usually get less than the recommended amount of sleep.

Most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. The key is just staying in a healthy range. Nine hours? Seven hours? I wish I could get seven. I guess I get seven hours of sleep maybe once every two weeks. It's usually more like somewhere between five and six. Good night is six hours sleep for me.

That's not to say that's a good thing. That just happens to be what I get. One of the psychiatrists, therapists, researchers who worked on this study for Columbia University says that as we age, the amount of sleep needed tends to decrease. Older adults may be well-rested and alert after six to seven hours. Thank you. The real culprit to watch out for as we age isn't the amount of sleep, but the quality of that sleep. Older people have unique vulnerabilities around getting a deep, steady rest.

A 2017 analysis in the journal Sleep Medicine Clinics explained how so-called sleep architecture can change with age, including advanced sleep timing, shortened nocturnal sleep duration, increased frequency of daytime naps, increased number of nocturnal awakenings, and time spent awake during the night, decreased slow-wave sleep, and other changes. Yeah, all those things do it it's nothing worse than like waking up in the middle of the night and sort of even in the darkness staring at the ceiling or the wall saying okay i want to go back to sleep now and you keep telling yourself that kind of every 10 minutes okay I want to go back to sleep now I'll go

back to sleep it doesn't happen and you finally get up or you do fall back asleep but sometimes it can take an hour certainly for me to do that so says this study if you're noticing that your nights now typically involve periods of wakefulness, is playing a little catch-up when possible during the day a good idea? Napping can be helpful, a very helpful strategy for older adults, says the researcher we were quoting earlier. But the timing and duration matter. Short naps of around 20 to 30 minutes can boost alertness without interfering with nighttime sleep.

However, extended or late afternoon naps might disrupt the sleep-wake cycle, making it harder to fall asleep at night. Mileage can vary even there. I have a friend in his late 50s who regularly conks out before making dinner. He calls it a napitizer. If you can successfully manage that nap thing, it works really well. I can recall back in the day when I was doing the National, what I used to do, because I'd be involved in the daytime operation of the newsroom,

but I would slip away, usually mid-afternoon, to get a nap. And if I could fall asleep for 15 minutes, that would make the difference. I have to keep reminding myself that as much as I like to be involved in the news operation, they paid me to look alert at 10 o'clock at night to do the national. That's what I was paid for. So I better be energetic at 10 o'clock at night. And that nap made all the difference.

I know that in days when I didn't get that 10 or 15 minutes, it made a difference. And, you know, we all know the stories from history. Churchill was the great napper. He used to sleep in the middle of the day or late in the day. But once again, for like 10 or 15 minutes, he'd be right out of it. He used to sleep in the middle of the day or late in the day. But once again, for like 10 or 15 minutes, he'd be right out of it. And then bang, he'd wake up and it was like he'd been sleeping for eight hours.

Or so the stories go. Okay. Here's a couple of ones on the lighter side. Do you like cheese? I love cheese. I used to hate cheese when I was a kid. My dad was a big cheese guy. And so he always used to have cheese around.

And it was usually cheddar. And I couldn't stand cheese. Today I love cheese. And I loved looking at the selection of cheeses from around the world at some of your nicer grocery stores. And as you know, if you listen to The Bridge, I spend a fair amount of time each year in Scotland, about four or five months. And they have a fantastic selection of cheeses from across Europe,

especially across the United Kingdom. And within 10 minutes from our home along the North Sea in the highlands of Scotland, there's a little town, well, it's more than a town. It's a small city called Tain, T-A-I-N. And it's home for the Highland Fine Cheeses in Scotland. And they are famous, even more famous now after the New York Times did a piece on them a couple of weeks ago.

Because they have what's billed as the world's smelliest cheese. It's called minger. And let me tell you, it is smelly. It is like unbelievably smelly. It's fine when it's wrapped. When you buy it, it's fine. As soon as you open it, get ready. Get ready for the smell that's going to knock you out.

Get ready for a fridge that is, everything in it is going to smell of minger within moments. Rory Stone, he's the 59-year-old cheesemaker who makes Minger, has literally been overrun with orders from Minger from around the world. It's the most putrid-smelling cheese in the world, as Rory says. Everybody's still asking for samples, and it just hasn't stopped, Mr. Stone said in a recent interview. And I find it really bizarre.

I mean, it is a smelly cheese, but it is quite a lovely flavor. So the only problem now is I've run out of cheese. Mr. Stone, whose parents were also cheesemakers, began selling the minger seven years ago. Minger is slang for someone who is ugly or smells bad. There are some urban dictionary definitions which are a bit rude, Mr. Stone said. I bet.

Supermarkets initially rejected it, dismissing it as a gimmick. But it sold well enough in independent shops and it has won several awards including Best Specialty Cheese at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh in 2019. This week, this is a couple of weeks ago, Asda, a British supermarket chain, announced that it would stock the cheese in its stores, making it widely available for the first time.

The Asda news release, which had described the minger as pungent, gave rise to a low-grade media frenzy, with Mr. Stone giving interviews to the Telegraph, Sky News, and the BBC. Mr. Stone said he hadn't set out to create the world's smelliest cheese, but he said he had encountered someone who applied that superlative to the minger and he embraced it we were going to bring some minger home from our last trip but we decided it ain't worth it first of all that suitcase is going to be ruined second if there's a leak in the in the suitcase that whole airplane is going to smell of minger. And that would be just too much because it stinks.

Anyway, there you go. There's your lesson on minger. The world's smelliest cheese. Good luck. All right. Good luck. All right. Last story. Last end bit. On an apparent wager to win $20,000,

that would have been about 4,000 pounds at the time, a 50-year-old cigarette shop or cigar shop owner called Patrick Harmon embarked on a curious challenge in the summer of 1915. He planned to walk backwards from San Francisco to New York City. With the aid of a friend and a small car mirror attached to his chest to help him see where he was going, Harmon made the 3,900 miles, that's 6,300 clicks, in 290 days, apparently walking every step backwards. Think about that. Every step backwards. Harmon claimed the journey made his ankles so strong that it would take a sledgehammer blow to sprain them.

Perhaps he was on to something. According to research, walking backwards can have surprising benefits for both your physical health and your brain. As Michael Mosley recently explored in an episode on the BBC podcast and radio show called Just One Thing, so you can look that up if you want more on this, but I mean, it's quite the story. It's known as retro walking, as walking backwards. It's got a rich history. There are reports dating back to the early 19th century

of people walking hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles in reverse. Many were the result of impulsive bets, and others were simply attempts to claim the bragging rights to a bizarre new record. But due to the difference in biomechanics, backwards walking can actually bring some physical benefits. It's often used in physiotherapy to relieve back pain, knee problems, and arthritis. Some studies even suggest that backwards walking can positively affect cognitive abilities such as memory, reaction time, and problem-solving skills.

This is like serious, okay? The practice of walking backwards for health purposes is thought to have originated in ancient China, but it has received attention from researchers more recently in the U.S. and Europe as a way of improving sports performance and to build muscle strength. You know, it makes sense when you think about it, but really. Have you ever seen anybody walking backwards? And I mean more than the length of your living room.

Here's the last part of this that I'm going to read. Janet Dufek, who's an expert in biomechanics at the University of Nevada in the U.S., has been researching backwards locomotion for more than 20 years. Can you imagine that? What do you do, Janet? It's great to meet you. What do you do for a living? Well, I research backwards walking.

Or backwards locomotion, as we tend to call it. She and her colleagues have found walking backwards for just 10 to 15 minutes a day over a four-week period increased the hamstring flexibility of 10 healthy female students. Backwards walking can also strengthen the muscles in the back, responsible for spine stability and flexibility. And in another study led by Dufek, a cohort of five athletes self-reported a reduction in lower back pain after periods of backwards walking. Our research has shown that indirectly backward walking has some benefits relative to lower back pain, simply because you're stretching the hamstrings. Often one of the pieces that's tied to lower back pain

is tight hamstrings. That's true. I know this from my own problems, trials and tribulations this year after tearing some ligaments in my ankle and the resulting problems it caused all the way up my leg. Backwards walking and backwards running drills are already used in some sports training, particularly team and racket sports, which require the agility to quickly move forwards,

backwards, and laterally, as it reduces the stress placed on the knee joints while building strength. Retro running is also useful for helping to protect athletes from injury. There you go. Who would have thought it? Now, I know some of you will write to me and say, well, Peter, why did you not know this? I've known this all my life. That's why I walk backwards. Okay. I'm not making fun of this. It just sounds odd, right? But I guess when you think of it,

like who says we were supposed to walk frontwards? Maybe the whole intention of the the great one who put us on this planet was that we were supposed to walk backwards, not forwards. And why weren't the eyes in the back of the head? I don't know. This is a puzzle.

We're going to have to do some in-depth research on this. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this. A little attempt to clear the backlog of end bits and some pretty interesting ones. Who knew, right? A reminder that tomorrow, Wednesday, Smoke Mirrors and the Truth, the last regular edition of Smoke Mirrors and the Truth, SMT with Bruce Anderson. Bruce will be with us.

Thursday, it's your turn. Focus on your best, most meaningful, most interesting Christmas memory. A memory from holiday time at this time of year. We'll pick some of the best and we'll pick the best. I'll pick the best. And that winner will get a signed copy of how Canada works. You can read it frontwards or backwards. That's the beauty of this book.

You don't have to start at the front. You can start at the back. Friday is good talk. Shanteli Baron, Bruce Anderson. Also Thursday, the Random Ranter with his thoughts for year end. That's it for this day. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening.

And as always, we'll talk to you again tomorrow in 24 hours. Thank you.