To Clap Or Not To Clap

Fox News has asked the question of whether passengers should applaud when an airliner touches down without answering it. In a travel feature last week, the network asked ethicists, "travel experts" and a few pilots whether the claps are appreciated. Other than the fact that they probably don't hear them through the noise and activity of landing, the story reached no conclusion.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/to-clap-or-not-to-clap

If a small downdraft at touchdown announces a solid arrival after an excellently executed flight with dozens if not hundreds of correctly made decisions made goes unappreciated it is a testament to the insular and ungrateful nature of the travelling public who understand almost nothing of the complexity involved. Forget the clapping and instead thank the flightcrew for their dedication and competence for arriving at your destination close to on time and safe.

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Always considered the applause after landing a subtle insult. But then again, maybe the clapping is the only available form of feedback people have.

I’d vote for a “Rate My Landing” touchpad where people can vote from 1 (Shot down by enemy forces) to 10 (Have we landed yet?). Don’t forget the “Buy the crew a coffee/ Donate” button.

Imagine pilots getting additional income from greasing their landings. When the shift is over, those who are simply glad not to have expired in a smoking pile of twisted aluminum, will eventually buy you a new swimming pool, a Corvette or a small airplane you can use to cause someone in your neighborhood some mental anquish.

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New policy. No applause. Rate the Landing and Tip Accordingly:

Smooth as Butter –**Tip: 20% of the ticket.
Firm but Fair – **Tip: 15% of the ticket.
Brace and Pray – **Tip: 10% of the ticket.
Call the Chiropractor – Landed so hard, I’m surprised the runway didn’t crack. **Tip: Pax’s discretion .

Tip machines will be conveniently located in the seatbacks—no tip, no disembark!

Whilst we are unable to hear the accolades, cheers, and applause up front, for a pillow soft return to earth, being the cockpit door is closed… The passengers can’t hear my citation, once the PARK BRAKE is set, “By the grace of the Sky Gods, we cheated death but once again.” I guess it’s an even payback.

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This implies that SLF ( Self-Loading Freight) know WTF is going on! They do not have a clue. I have been a pilot, know a fair amount abut aviation and can confirm that SLF applauding just reinforces the crew’s opinion that they are ignoramuses. In my thousands of airliner landings as pax, I have rarely felt that acknowledgement was due. One of the few occasions was in an Oman Air 737 going into Salalah, with a 90 degree crosswind (fortunately with only medium turbulence) which greased onto the runway so smoothly I only knew we had landed for certain when the pilot braked and the reversers opened. THAT deserved applause, which I gave, though the SLF didn’t realise how good a landing it was!

Commercial air travel is a form of trade. One entity provides compensation to another entity to provide a specific service. Most of us have experienced both smooth landings and hard landings, and I personally have never felt that I received more bang for my buck by experiencing the former nor have I ever felt that I was somehow cheated when experiencing the latter. The terms of the contract are upheld either way and a simple ‘thank you, have a nice day’ is what the crew gets every time. Well, that and a pay check.

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In a culture where common courtesy isn’t common, it should be a given to thank the entire flight crew for their service. Applause? Meh. As mentioned, Joe Average knows zero to none about flying, and I think that often an outburst after a rocky flight is just a human knee-jerk reaction with little undertones. Myself, as long as I’m in condition to speak once we reach terra firma, I’ll thank the crew for doing all they could! Boarding an aircraft, bus, auto, etc means placing a portion (if not all) of your existence in another’s hands. A polite Thank You is the minimum for their skills and efforts.

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No. Each short final will become in my mind, "Oh please, let this be an applause landing! “FO, crack the door and see if you can hear.” It will be like counting likes!

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Thank you, John. Common courtesy is indeed important. The mail carrier gets paid, but I thank them anyway. Same with wait staff, trash collectors, flight attendants, doctors, I don’t care. When I was an airline pilot, I never needed applause, but a nice “thank you” is always well received, just like the one I always proffered for their business. Just be nice. It ain’t hard.

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How about we go one step further. During every takeoff and landing, And during periods of more than just light turbulence, should all of the passengers raise their hands as if riding on a roller coaster?

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Next time I fly commercially, I will mumble a muffled:

“Thank you kindly for not letting me expire in a smoldering pile of crumpled aluminum on the bottom of a impact-crater!”

Then, I’l nod knowingly and prepare for my return trip by cruise ship.

And let’s not forget the 3% Service Fee to help our pilots procure health insurance and 4% Convenience Fee for using your mileage credit card.

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…I do take some offense when they kiss the ground.

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I remember one particularly sporty flight from SLC to SJC the captain of a trusty little craft kept making it a point to insert that the first officer would be flying this leg entirely by himself. He announced again before taxiing out and again before takeoff. It was a bumpy day down below the flight levels so it was what it was. As the stews were cleaning up the coach the captain again announced that the first officer would be landing the plane today.

On final approach the first officer was obviously having trouble maintaining the glideslope. It was windy, gusty, bumpy, just nasty for the Bay Area that day. You could hear the engines spool up, then down, the airplane would go up, then down. Finally just over the runway he started throttling back, and we floated,and floated, and floated and then WHUMP! He executed what can only be described as a carrier landing. I swore I felt the plane hit stops on the landing gear.

Back at the gate while all us cattle were deplaning, the captain was all smiles and happily thanking everyone for flying with them. When it was my turn to say my goodbyes I said, “Hey, way to test that landing gear!” The captain didn’t miss a beat and happily quipped “Yeah, wasn’t that something!” The whole time this was going on the first officer had his head down, avoiding eye contact, and busily writing.

If our our local airport bums had been there along the side of that runway with their score cards.

Passengers applauded the landing on my second ever flight. Returning to Chicago from Rome, our Alitalia 727 was packed to the gills with passengers diverting to Boston because of an ATC strike in Canada. The pilot stood on the brakes as the engines spooled up to max RPM, and we lept off the runway.

Approaching Boston I watched out the window as the ocean came up in the window. And up, and up. When it looked like we were about to be in the water, there was land-- numbers–and a baby in the carriage smooth touchdown. He greased the landing, and the passengers erupted.

I imagined the driver probably drove Formula 1 in his spare time.

While a passenger on a flight from Frankfurt to Dulles a few years ago the aircrew diverted to Newark for what I knew was a minor electrical issue. PAX applauded after landing and I thought it was probably the only time anyone was glad to land in Jersey.

Whole thing seems like a non-issue, really. As has been pointed out, most passengers know little about what is going on up in the front office. The landing that really deserves applause just might be the firm one done on a windy, rainy day to a wet runway.

Back when I had to fly regularly for business, I concluded that applause on landing said more about the applauder than the experience itself. Not unlike a diner making a production of leaving a tip, primarily to draw attention to himself.