(energetic rock music)
- [Penny] Hi, I'm Miss Penny from KidVision.
I'm here at Miami International Airport
at the American Airlines gate
to spend the day with an airline pilot.
- [Diana] Hi, Ms. Penny, my name is Diana Lugemwa,
and I'm a first officer for American Airlines.
- [Penny] Oh, it's so nice to meet you.
Could you tell us a little bit about your uniform?
- [Diana] Yes ma'am, so I'm wearing a pilot uniform.
And the way that you know that it's a pilot uniform
are by the stripes on my arm.
Three stripes are for first officers,
and four stripes will be for captains.
- [Penny] How long does it take to earn those stripes?
- [Diana] So those stripes take about four to five years
to earn going through flight school and flight training
to become a first officer.
And from there, you build your flight time
to earn your fourth stripe as a captain.
- [Penny] What about your pendant?
- [Diana] So my pendant is actually a pair of wings
that I earned when I got hired by American Airlines.
And my wings have the American Airlines eagle in the middle.
And when I upgrade to captain,
I'll have a star at the top.
- [Penny] And I noticed that most airline pilots
carry a bag with them.
What's inside the bag?
- [Diana] Yes ma'am, so this is my flight kit here.
And most pilots carry around for some essential items.
We have an iPad,
which takes the place of a lot of paper documents
that we receive.
We can see our flight plan.
And we can also see our airport charts
so that we can navigate and taxi around the airport.
- [Penny] Oh, interesting.
- [Diana] I also keep in my flight bag
a headset so that when I'm talking to air traffic control
and talking to the other pilot,
I can hear them loud and clear.
- [Penny] So you wear those in the cockpit?
- [Diana] Absolutely, so they have two plugs.
We plug them up and I put them on
like I'm listening to some music,
and I can hear everything that's going on on the radios.
In my bag I also carry, for me importantly, sunglasses.
It's really bright when you're at altitude.
And the last thing I carry in my flight bag
is a book of emergency procedures.
Now these can range from anything from an engine failure
or maybe a light bulb blew,
but I always want to make sure that I'm handling
the situation as safely as possible.
- [Penny] And I can see in case your iPad goes out,
you need the written word.
- [Diana] Backup, exactly, yes, ma'am.
- [Penny] Terrific.
So those are your main tools.
- [Diana] These are my main tools
for the flight today, yes, ma'am.
- [Penny] Great, well, I would love to see your workspace.
Could we take a tour?
- [Diana] Absolutely, I'll show you to the plane.
- Okay, let's go.
(energetic music)
This is so exciting.
I can't believe we're on the ground
where all the airplanes are and all the activity is.
What is this called?
What is this place called?
- Yes, ma'am, Miss Penny, right now we're on the ramp area.
- Very exciting.
And what is your check?
Do you have a list that you go through?
- Yes, ma'am.
We come out here do what's called the walk around.
So a walk around is basically
an exterior inspection of the entire airplane.
Every pilot must do a walk around before each flight
to make sure the airplane is safe to fly.
- And where do you start?
- Usually we start at the very front of the airplane,
and we walk all the way around
checking the engines, the tires, the back of the airplane.
And then we come along the other side
and do the same exact thing.
- How do you check it?
How do you check the engine?
- Well, we go up to the engine,
and we're looking for a few things.
We want to make sure that the fan blades
and that the outside of the engine don't have any damage.
Also making sure that there's no fuel
or oil leaking from the engine.
- When do they put gas in the plane?
- So usually the fuel gets onto the airplane
before we come out.
And the fuelers know that we have
a certain amount of fuel that we need
based on how far we're gonna fly that day.
- And then you check the tires next?
- Yep, so next we continue to walk around to the tires.
And on the tires, we don't kick the tires,
but we are making sure that they're fully inflated
for takeoff and landing.
- How can you tell if they're fully inflated?
- So it's a visual inspection
and there are little numbers on there as well
to make sure that they have enough air pressure.
- [Penny] So you walk from the front to the back?
- [Diana] Yes, ma'am, we start walking our way
from the front all the way to the back.
- And what do you look at on the side of the plane?
- So on the side of the plane is the body of the aircraft.
We just want to make sure that there are no dents,
that nothing's bent and that the surface is nice and smooth.
- Great, and then after you do all the checkoff,
do you let someone know that everything is okay?
- Yes, ma'am.
So once we've completed the walk around
and everything looks good, we're ready to go fly.
But if there was a problem, we would call our mechanic
and say, "Hey, we need something fixed."
- Thank you.
- No problem.
You ready to go inside?
- I am ready.
- All right.
(upbeat music)
Okay, Miss Penny, before we go to the cockpit,
is that your ticket?
- [Penny] Yes, it is.
- [Diana] Excellent, so your ticket's got your name,
where we're going, Rio de Janeiro,
and where you're gonna be sitting.
It looks like you got a window seat.
We also have a middle seat and an aisle seat.
- [Penny] I like the window seat the best.
- [Diana] Sounds good, let's get seated right here.
The most important thing when you find your seat,
get your seat belt on and securely fastened.
And that way we know you're ready for take off.
- [Penny] Okay, I feel good.
- [Diana] Excellent job, Miss Penny.
It's so important the first thing you do
when you take your seat is to make sure your seatbelt
is securely fastened.
And that way we know you're ready for take off.
In a few minutes, we're gonna be pushing back
and slowly taxing out to the runway.
It's gonna feel like you're on a rollercoaster.
Once we get on the runway,
you're gonna feel those engines spool up,
plane will vibrate a little bit
and we'll be on our way to Rio de Janeiro.
(bright lively music)
- So now we're in the cockpit,
which is the most exciting part of an airplane for me.
And this is your workplace.
- This is, this is considered my office, welcome.
- Thank you.
What's the first thing you do when you enter the cockpit?
- The very first thing I do since I probably
haven't been in this specific cockpit before,
is I'm gonna set up my workstation.
I'm gonna get my flight bag ready,
my headphones ready, and my iPad ready.
And then I'm gonna go through and check to make sure
all the buttons in the flight deck or the cockpit
are in their right position.
- And what else do you have to check
before you pull us back and we take off?
- There's a couple of different things we're gonna check.
I like to think of it from outside to in.
We're looking at the weather.
We're looking at the airplane, like we did outside earlier.
We're also gonna be checking the inside of the airplane.
And then we're also gonna be checking ourselves
and making sure that we're good supply as well.
- Can we talk about the buttons for a minute?
- So, the buttons here
control different systems of the airplane.
That's this one says hydraulic.
This one says fuel jettison..
This one says bleed air, pressurization.
So each button pertains to a different system
in order to make sure that it's functioning properly.
- And what about the screens that we see?
- So we have a couple well different screens here.
These screens all tell us more information
about the airplane.
This tells us about our engine instruments.
These are checklists.
So when we're ready to push back
we can make sure we did everything properly.
And this is gonna display a map of where we're going.
And this is kind of how we get here.
This is our guide.
It tells us how fast we're going,
how high we're going, an altimeter.
It tells us what direction we're going in.
So it's a really good resource to look out,
especially on cloudy days, to know that we're flying safely.
- And if you want to talk to your passengers in the back,
or if you want to talk to air traffic control,
what do you use?
- We're gonna come down here to our radio system.
And we have a microphone right here
that we can talk to air traffic control.
And they may say, "Hey, turn left to a northern heading."
We'll say, "Turning left to north."
And maybe I need to make an announcement
because it's gonna get bumpy.
So I say, "Ladies and gentlemen,
"this is Diana from the flight deck.
"We're gonna have the seatbelt sign on
"because it's gonna get bumpy."
And then everyone will be able to hear me.
So depending on who I'm talking to,
I can control that all down here.
- So you're really the boss?
(Diana laughing)
- I'm boss of the first officer, but either way,
it's nice to have the opportunity
to make sure that we're safe.
- That is so exciting.
What's your story? How did you get here?
- What made me want to become a pilot,
and how did I get to this seat?
When I was young, I got the chance
to take my very first flight
to go visit my family in Africa.
That was a long flight.
It was all the way from Georgia to London,
and then London on down.
But me and my brother,
we were arguing about the window seat, and I won.
(Diana laughing)
So sitting on the window seat,
I got to watch the airplane turn.
I got to see the flaps move.
And I was absolutely fascinated
by everything that I witnessed.
From that day on, I knew exactly I wanted to be a pilot.
- What's the most exciting thing
that ever happened to you during a flight?
- I think the most exciting thing
that I've experienced during a flight
was when I was a captain at my last airline
flying the smaller regional jets.
We were coming in to land into Washington DC.
And because that's where our nation's capital is,
there are a lot of buildings that we can not fly over.
So there's the White House, there are the monuments.
And order to fly in and out,
we have to kind of do a zigzag approach.
Well, as we're doing a zigzag approach,
we get a notification
that something's going wrong with our flight controls.
So at that moment we immediately turn
and we go to another airport to fix the problem.
And there was, you know, a day that was exciting.
But at the same time,
I was happy to use the skills that I learned in training
to be able to get the plane on the ground safely.
- You're responsible for a lot of lives.
And you have to be proficient and alert
and experienced enough to make fast decisions
to save people.
And it's great to hear that you went through an experience
that you were able to take control on your own
and make the right choices.
- Yes, ma'am, we go through a lot of training
just to ensure that when those situations occur,
we make the best, quickest,
and most importantly, the safest decisions possible.
- I feel safe in your hands.
- Absolutely, ready to go fly?
- I'm ready.
- Let's do it. - All right.
(energetic upbeat music)
Hi boys and girls, it's Ms. Penny.
Put on your thinking caps.
It's time to learn a new word.
Airline pilot.
An airline pilot is a person who flies planes
as a profession and works for a commercial airline.
What was that word?
- [Students] Airline pilot.
- Good job.
Cockpit.
A cockpit is an area at the front of an aircraft
from which a pilot flies and controls the aircraft.
What was that word?
- [Students] Cockpit.
- Good job.
Jet plane.
A jet plane is an airplane powered by jet engines.
What was that word?
- [Students] Jet plane.
- Good job.
Passenger ticket.
A passenger ticket is a document,
either paper or electronic,
that contains the passenger's travel information.
What was that word?
- [Students] Passenger ticket.
- Good job.
See you next time.