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Airline passengers typically don’t interact much with their flight crew. Things are usually limited to one or two polite addresses (maybe a couple more on long-haul flights) and a handful of pings of the seatbelt sign.

As nice and authoritative as those are, they don’t reveal much of what actually happens in a cockpit over the course of a flight.

That’s why we were drawn to this 43-minute video on YouTube. It shows an entire, everyday airline (A320) flight between the two major international airports in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro (SBGL – Galeao) and Sao Paulo (SBGR – Guarulhos).

Shot in real time, the film reveals the kind of tasks an airline captain and co-pilot carry out before take-off, in-flight and after landing – maintenance status check, walk around, flight preparation, take off, climb, cruise, approach and landing procedures included.

From the look of the footage the landing looks fairly smooth, especially when you consider there were crosswinds of 20 knots (23 mph) to contend with.

Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…

(Featured image: baixadoetravado)

About the author

Brett AckroydBrett hopes to one day reach the shores of far-flung Tristan da Cunha, the most remote of all the inhabited archipelagos on Earth…as to what he’ll do when he gets there, he hasn’t a clue. Over the last 10 years, London, New York, Cape Town and Pondicherry have all proudly been referred to as home. Now it’s Copenhagen’s turn, where he lends his travel expertise to momondo.com.

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