Before you board you will be asked how much you weigh. Tell the truth!
from “Alaska Travel Etiquette”
You’ll arrive in Anchorage on a Boeing 737 or some other big generic jet crammed to the bulkheads with fellow passengers, flight attendants cranky because of all the carry-ons and pilots made manifest only by a disembodied voice emanating from the ceiling.
If you decide to fly out of Anchorage into the Bush, however, you’ll be traveling on anything from a Twin Otter (fourteen passengers) to a Piper Super Cub (just you and one pilot and your knees will be crammed into the small of his or her back).
Another big difference is that before you board you will be asked how much you weigh. Tell the truth! This is necessary to calculate the payload of the aircraft and is essential for a safe flight. If the flight service crew think you have, um, underestimated, they will march you over to a scale, one of which every air taxi I’ve ever flown with has on prominent display in the office. Although my friend Rhonda Sleighter says she knows someone who claims to weigh three hundred pounds on every flight, just to make up for all the liars.
True! When I was teaching in Gambell, a friend flew up with me one year to help set up my classroom. She almost refused to go when she was asked her weight. They very kindly allowed her to write it on a slip of paper and slide it across the counter! Good times!
It wasn’t their first rodeo.
I think the FAA needs to “adjust” their standard weight. Kind of like increasing the interest rate, like they do all the time.
[grin]