You check the app more than you’d like to. Each time it should say the same plain thing, and tell you what a sound is before you have to wonder.
You, the night before “Is it going to be bumpy?”
Skycap
Leave about 12:36 PM. Expect a typical ride, with the usual few bumps.
It starts with when to leave, then the ride, in words you could read aloud to someone else. Typical means like most flights.
Most trackers Departs 6:42 PM
Skycap
At the airport by 5:52 PM
Security usually takes 10–20 min at this hour.
A time to be there and how long security usually takes at that hour, so there is no guessing how early is early enough.
You, as the door closes “Why did the air go quiet?”
Skycap
Once the door closes, the air noise often changes as the plane switches to its own air supply.
One quiet line, said as what usually happens, never as news about your plane. No alert and no buzz.
Most trackers En route
Skycap
About 10 min of bumpier air is forecast along the way.
Sit on the left for Lake Tahoe and the Rockies' Front Range, if the route holds.
How long and where, with something to look at instead. The stretch is marked on the flight’s profile, so you can see where it ends.
You, at 37,000 ft “What was that buzz?”
Skycap
A bark or buzz under the floor
A hydraulic pump starting up or checking itself, most often on Airbus jets, and it's normal.
Ten common sounds in the order a flight makes them, each with when it happens. You can read the list at the gate, before any of them.
Most trackers Arriving late
Skycap
Circling before landing
Common when the airport is busy or weather slows arrivals. Now lands about 5:05 PM.
If the plane circles, the page says so, says why that’s common, and gives the new landing time.
You, on the way down “What was that clunk?”
Skycap
A few minutes before landing you'll often hear a clunk and a deep rumble: the wheels coming down, and the air rushing past them.
The loudest noise of the descent, named a few minutes before it comes. Into San Francisco it adds that the water looks close until the runway appears.
The same app, read by someone else.
In beta for iPhone, iPad and Mac.
The screens are from the app, with example flights. Times are estimates, and the app says so.
