<story><title>Eclipse viewing at 30k feet: Delta to offer path-of-totality flight</title><url>https://news.delta.com/eclipse-viewing-30000-feet-delta-offer-path-totality-flight</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>londons_explore</author><text>Banking the plane for people to see is a safety thing.&lt;p&gt;If people think they &lt;i&gt;won&amp;#x27;t&lt;/i&gt; get a chance to see, they might all crowd to one side of the plane, causing enough weight imbalance so as to cause a crash.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a big problem on boats, and there are countless stories of someone on a crowded boat seeing a dolphin, shouting about it, everyone crowds to one side to get closer, and the whole boat capsizes.&lt;p&gt;Regulations now require that boats stay afloat if everyone stands on one side, but the regulations aren&amp;#x27;t perfectly adhered to and that still doesn&amp;#x27;t prevent people crowding to one side enough to push&amp;#x2F;knock others overboard.</text></item><item><author>mackman</author><text>Story time. In the last total eclipse, I was commuting from Boston to San Francisco a bunch and planned my flight to coincide with the path of totality. I brought enough eclipse glasses for the entire flight. The flight attendants were kind enough to distribute them and even gave them to the pilot and copilot. The flight crew was excited about it and actually got approval a change to their flight plan so that they could bank the plane so that people on both sides of the plane could actually look out the window to see the eclipse. This is back in the days of Virgin America, and as a thank you they sent me a little desk statue of a Virgin America plane. I keep it on my desk in fond memory of my favorite airline. Also got some cool photos of the flight crew and passengers all wearing eclipse glasses. (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mackman.net&amp;#x2F;va.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mackman.net&amp;#x2F;va.jpg&lt;/a&gt;)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dghlsakjg</author><text>Banking the plane is a convenience thing.&lt;p&gt;Side to side weight balance of passengers is not a major factor in any plane I have ever read the manual for. They are too close to the centerline to impart much force. The pilots might notice it and trim it out, but I doubt they would have to do anything beyond that. Fore and aft balance is critical, but still unlikely to be an issue with passengers at cruise speed since the elevator has &lt;i&gt;a lot&lt;/i&gt; of control authority at 500mph.&lt;p&gt;A 737 can fly fine with a completely empty wing tank on one side and a completely full wing tank on the other. The wing tanks of some models can carry 4,500 kgs of fuel in each side, so that amounts to a 9,000 kg imbalance outboard of the fuselage. That is the equivalent of about 111 &amp;quot;standard&amp;quot; passengers&amp;#x27; weight on the wing that can be handled with trim alone, and 737s are capable of safely landing in that configuration.&lt;p&gt;Boats are different because as they heal farther and farther the righting moment diminishes (for conventional monohull powercraft at least), and the passengers are able to get all the way to the extreme.&lt;p&gt;Planes on the other hand have the same &amp;quot;righting moment&amp;quot; no matter how far over they bank since it is a function of airflow over control surfaces rather than buoyancy and gravity.</text></comment>
<story><title>Eclipse viewing at 30k feet: Delta to offer path-of-totality flight</title><url>https://news.delta.com/eclipse-viewing-30000-feet-delta-offer-path-totality-flight</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>londons_explore</author><text>Banking the plane for people to see is a safety thing.&lt;p&gt;If people think they &lt;i&gt;won&amp;#x27;t&lt;/i&gt; get a chance to see, they might all crowd to one side of the plane, causing enough weight imbalance so as to cause a crash.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a big problem on boats, and there are countless stories of someone on a crowded boat seeing a dolphin, shouting about it, everyone crowds to one side to get closer, and the whole boat capsizes.&lt;p&gt;Regulations now require that boats stay afloat if everyone stands on one side, but the regulations aren&amp;#x27;t perfectly adhered to and that still doesn&amp;#x27;t prevent people crowding to one side enough to push&amp;#x2F;knock others overboard.</text></item><item><author>mackman</author><text>Story time. In the last total eclipse, I was commuting from Boston to San Francisco a bunch and planned my flight to coincide with the path of totality. I brought enough eclipse glasses for the entire flight. The flight attendants were kind enough to distribute them and even gave them to the pilot and copilot. The flight crew was excited about it and actually got approval a change to their flight plan so that they could bank the plane so that people on both sides of the plane could actually look out the window to see the eclipse. This is back in the days of Virgin America, and as a thank you they sent me a little desk statue of a Virgin America plane. I keep it on my desk in fond memory of my favorite airline. Also got some cool photos of the flight crew and passengers all wearing eclipse glasses. (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mackman.net&amp;#x2F;va.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mackman.net&amp;#x2F;va.jpg&lt;/a&gt;)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sorenjan</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s an even bigger issue if it&amp;#x27;s a Polish plane, you don&amp;#x27;t want too many poles on the right side of the plane.</text></comment>