In-Flight Entertainment

On my trip back east, I discovered one thing I like about flying United—that if you turn to channel 9 of the in-flight audio system, they often pipe in the primary transceiver from the flight deck. It’s neat to hear ground saying “United 701, turn to heading 210” “210, United 701” and watch the plane start turning. But they can also pipe other radio signals, and on the flight out they put on the Cubs game straight from the Chicago radio station WGN.

On my return trip yesterday I changed flights in Denver, and waiting for the next plane, I wandered over to watch the Cubs in the terminal bar and grill. Mark Prior was pitching an excellent game, and the Cubs were up 1-nothing, which became 2-nothing after a Dontrelle Willis wild pitch. All was looking bright, and the Cubbies were six outs away from their first pennant in 58 years, at which point I left to catch my plane.

Once aboard, I tried to see if they were broadcasting the game like they did earlier over channel 9. I couldn’t get any audio feed at first, due to a faulty headset plug, but 45 minutes later I got the thing to work, and tuned into a cockpit-ground conversation where the controllers on the ground were saying the Marlins won 8-3—they scored 8 runs in the 8th. Oh god, I thought. The poor Cubs.

And as we now know the Cubs would lose the series in today’s 7th game. It’s a sad day. And channel 9 notwithstanding, I still prefer flying Southwest to United.