It also gave the crew something else to do rather than yet another crossword
My apologies if this is very slightly off the original thread topic, but this is something which is a really genuine change since what has become known as "9/11". I refer, of course, to BOREDOM.
I've been an AME for 23 years now, seeing literally hundreds of professional aircrew every year. Prior to Sept 2001 I doubt if I ever, ever, heard in our conversations a single mention of boredom in the cruise. Nowadays it is frequently mentioned. The crew are locked in the F/D, unable to socialise, unable to have visitors (even though the AP is actually flying the aircraft from minute to minute). We read on other threads of crews who have (both ! ) fallen asleep, and in many ways who can be surprised ?
Boredom also adds, of course, to perceived stress levels - - as if they were not high enough already !
I've made it clear in this thread already that I believe that once the rules are in place they must be obeyed - by EVERYBODY. But it's still a great disappointment . . . . . . not only for folk like me who used to enjoy visiting my own "
patients" at the pointy end on most of my trips abroad, but also for them because of boredom on the very long sectors flown nowadays.