Eating While Flying?
 

I'm sure eating while flying as pilot has to be a safety hazard for all sorts of reasons. However I cannot find anything in the regs that prohibits it and the medical staff enjoin pilots, among other things, to be fed.

So what does a peckish pilot do?

Easy - you eat!

Two and a bit hours to the south of France. Forty-five minutes to refuel, meet the passengers and get them on board. Two and a bit hours for the return leg.

The buttie box is the most important item on the aircraft ;)

Strongly suggest that you do not eat when flying solo. Uncontrollable choking on a label stuck to an apple, (presumably to identify it as an apple) can spoil your day. Drinking water is to be reccommended though as the effects of dehydration are invidious and dangerous.

Mike W

It depends on how long your flight is if it's going to be a health hazard not to eat.
Never had a problem with eating and flying. Sure, best not to be having a snack on short final but in cruise, no problem. Naturally, if you're in a hot climate don't take food that'll spoil quickly or carry a cooler bag (that's what I did).

Thirst is more of a problem. Take water on all your flights.

Pick food that doesn't generate crumbs, and use a drinks container that can be re-sealed with one hand.

G

Cans of diet coke are a really poor idea above around FL50. The lower pressure causes them to go everywhere when you open them, crisps are also not the best idea. They go everywhere, and make loads of crumbs.

Anything resealable is much better, especially 'sports caps' on water bottles. Fairy cakes are always good, but dont stand up to aerobatics very well, as they squash to easily, and become all deformed as they bounce around your lunch box.

|As Reddo said....water is the go. If you are flying across great tracts of the Gaffa, and go down, water assumes an enormous significance. You can live without eating, but water is important, amongst other goodies in the survival bag.
a plastic sheet to generate water through condensation is good too. All this stuff about knives to kill crocs pales into insignificance when faced with thirst. (If no crocs, read as kangaroos) Definitely I would leave the sarnies behind and take along a lot of water. Just remember which juice bottle you have used for other purposes.

To answer Sunfish's original question: "What does a peckish pilot do?"

A peckish pilot eats! And does so at an appropriately low workload time eg cruise and stops eating to attend to tasks that fall due.

Sunfish, your original statement makes a presumption & then you proceed as if it's a fact.

Let's reverse the situation: A pilot has a long flight time day eg 5 or 6 hrs airborne, that involves minimal time on the ground & without access to a fast food shop. Do you think that a hungry pilot with possibly low blood sugar having to make an instrument approach to minimums is safer than one who, during a cruise segment eats a sandwich while watching out the windscreen & monitoring the instruments?

It's not hard to eat & fly. You eat &/or drink while driving don't you? No different while flying. It's arguably easier since you don't have to ensure separation from opposing traffic closing at 200kph with only 10' separation and can choose the quiet(er) moments. Even easier if the a/c has any form of autopilot...

This peckish PPL takes along those muesli/fruit bars., ie., the ones that are manufactured already stale so that they can't get any worst after sitting on the back seat of the A/C for 2 months in 30'C heat. :)

And why does ATC always want to talk to me when I'm busily chewing aforesaid snack. ?

Packets of crisps are a no-no for me, especially after an incident where a packet burst with a very loud pop during a climb though 7000'.
(it took a while to get my heartrate back to normal after that event.)

Biggles, You said it before I could!

Yep, muesli bars and drinks in bottles with sports caps work just fine...at least until you have to unexpectedly talk on the radio. And low blood sugar or dehydration and flying are not a good combination!

I'm talking f/w here, before anyone asks; if in a helicopter, unless it's a fancy expensive one with reliable friction/trim and autopilot/SAS, forget sustenance, or land in a field first. Unless you've learned how to grow a third hand. :eek: :confused:

I always take water - either in a bottle with a sports cap, or the bottle I use when walking, which has a hose with a valve on the end, so you can drink totally hands free. If it's a hot day, I take a 50:50 mix of fruit juice and water.

As for food, picnicky things are ideal. Cold sausages or other meats, boiled eggs, bite-size pieces of fruit etc etc.

Conversely, why do pilots always call me up when I've just taken a huge bite of sandwich? :ugh:

Ninjabill - LMAO here, might have to report you to the RSPCFC though (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fairy Cakes). :ok:

Some good bits of advice on here, I always tend to land after an hour's local chugging feeling very dehydrated, thought it was just me though. Extra line being written onto my checklist as I type this; ensure water bottle is on board and securely tucked into map pocket. ;)

Tinstaafl

Quote: "You eat &/or drink while driving don't you?"

No I do not! I've always thought it was unlawful to do so, and possibly quite dangerous; that's what laybys and motorway services are for...

But, I haven't spotted either of these in the air yet, so at an appropriate quiet time in the cruise I do take a gulp of water from a sports bottle or a chomp on a choccy bar.

Slip

ps how DO you post quotes in parrallel bars?

The first, an most important rule to remember is.....don't forget to move the mike first!

Its kind of awkward to push a bottle of water into your mouth, only to start sucking the mic sock. Any if you have a passenger, you don't want them to enjoy any amplfied eating sounds either.

Hands up everyone who has forgotten Rule 1 :O

Ahhh, it was you, I sat on one of your left overs last time I flew. You should try a bit of flapjack, now that's where it's at. You need to remember to adjust your CofG measurements during flight, depending where you store the lunchbox.

Remember the Bero advert with the ducks.........

I take my wife and she feeds me grapes.................

There I was eating an egg sandwich on a ferry flight between Greenland and Iceland when - what is that hard piece? Oh yeah that would be the microphone then!

Regards,

Sorry guys, can not believe some of the crap replies. "May choke etc etc". Eat at a not flight critical stage, is not a problem. Every airline pilot in the world eats. We have many fantastic people on this forum, but oh those mouse !!!! dissectors P!$$ me off

Regards

Wide

Mmmm.....I see a niche in the market here - taxy-through food to go...that'll be 2 Waltham burgers and large fries, and a couple of bags of biltong for later. Anybody know the CAA's position on after-market cup-holders for a Yak?

Seriously - in the PA28s I generally have a bottle of water and a snack bar in the flight bag close to hand.

Occasionally when I have been looking at my map, I look up, and we are on a new heading or in a slightly unusual attitude. Eating is fine as I look outside.
So now I don`t look at the map........ but my weight continues to go up.

Stay safe, eat more.

J