Category: Air

Why Do You Fart So Much When Flying?

by Anil Polat | Jun 11, 2019 | Air, Food, Health and Fitness, Pictures and Video, Travel Unravel | 0

Extra flatulence is not just you (or the person next to you) but rather a phenomena everyone experiences to varying degrees as altitude increases. It’s something you may have pondered the last time you flew and my video above explains exactly why this happens and a few things you can do to mitigate farts when flying.

Essentially, as you go up from sea level, the decrease in air pressure allows the gas already in your gut to expand. As the gases expand, they start putting extra pressure on your insides, eventually wanting to make their way out from the only exit available.

Start With Less Gas

Since these gases are created by the bacteria in your gut as a byproduct of digestion, the first countermeasure is to reduce the amount of food for them prior to flying. Ideally, flying hungry first thing in the morning should mean fewer farts in flight. (Keep in mind when you land, air pressure closer to sea level increases which can also cause cramping.)

In case you can’t avoid eating right before or during a flight, sticking to lesser processed menu items may help. Roughly 65% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant to some degree, so ordering a vegan meal can help you avoid dairy products. Less processed food could also be beneficial.

Shreddies USA Men's Hipsters M Black

You can catch up on all the gassy details in the video but keep in mind about 60% of pilots report regular bloating while flying, meaning it is something we all have to deal with. Even on the ground, the average person farts about 10-20 times a day but if you’re particularly concerned about stinking up the cabin, some charcoal-filtered underwear might be an option for you. For everyone else, the bathroom is a good alternative if you can make it on time.

Jabra’s Elite 85h Noise Canceling Headphones Are Designed With AI For Frequent Travelers

by Anil Polat | May 30, 2019 | Air, Tech | 0

For many travelers, especially those who fly often, headphones are essential for music, listening to movies, and being a polite way to tell the person next to you to shut up. Headphones with active noise canceling go one step further and turn an airplane cabin into a quiet room, no chatty grandfathers or constant hum of jet engines.

Active noise canceling (ANC) is a feature reserved for premium headphones but Jabra’s Elite 85h is a jump into the market, bringing artificial intelligence with it while undercutting the competition. You can watch my full review in the video above or read on.

What’s Different About The 85h?

I could easily go on a long explanation of why you should get headphones with ANC. Most people at first look at the $350 plus costs with their eyes rolling like slot machines into the back of their brains. Until you use a pair. ANC uses microphones in the headphones to analyze external sounds to cancel them out. Effectively, it’s like being in a very quiet room whether you have music on or not. The technology is pronounced, effective, and reduces stress from all the ambient chaos in airports, subways, and the motors that run them. Jabra is clearly marketing these headphones for travelers, so much so, that when I first tried them at CES earlier this year, they demoed the 85h in a mock-subway car.

So, what’s different? Well, first the price. The Elite 85h are $300, solidly less expensive than the Sony and Bose competition.

The second, is the artificial intelligence. Yes, you read that correctly.

Headphones With AI

Normally, ANC is a feature you enable and disable manually. When you’re on the go it’s common to do so otherwise you might miss gate announcements or the flight attendant explaining meal options. The Elite 85h on the other hand analyzes your surroundings automatically, tuning the ANC to let vocals through when needed. This SmartSound feature is controlled through the Jabra+ app where you can set public, private, commute, and other various scenarios with their sound profiles.

Here’s where the experience gets a little less seamless – you have to connect the Elite 85h to your phone over Bluetooth, then connect the Jabra+ app to get the full use of the AI. Once it’s set, you’re mostly done with configuring, but remember to grab the app. Your phone will show two Bluetooth connections to the Elite 85h, not entirely elegant but more of a quirk than a complaint.

The SmartSound AI once you’ve configured it, means less fiddling with buttons or taking headphones on an off. Personally, I think this is the very beginning of smarter headphones in the near future.

The Regular Parts Are Good Too

Overall, the ANC isn’t quiet as crystal clear as the Bose QuietComfort again, more of a nitpick than a deficiency. Sound quality of the Elite 85h is great, these are fun headphones to listen music through. Jabra’s roots also show throughout the Elite 85h. Beautiful but functional Scandinavian design like their entry-level Move, the Elite 85h automatically pause music when you take them off. Turn the ear cups in, and the headphones turn off. No power button.

USB-C charging gives you 5 hours of battery life with a 15 minute top up, or 36 total hours with ANC (41 without) after a full 2 hour charge. There’s an optional headphone jack, plus 8 microphones built-in for ANC and excellent call audio. Jabra is known for making headsets and if you call relatives who are hard of hearing, they’ll appreciate the crispness of your voice.

There’s a lot to like about the Elite 85h, they’re comfortable to wear, come with a form-fitting case, and impressive AI ANC. Usually when a company jumps into a market, they make splashes with gimmicks or products that aren’t full realized. What’s most impressive about the Elite 85h is how complete, and in many ways, better they seem to be at less cost than the Sony WH1000XM3 or Bose QuietComfort 35.

I’ll follow up with a Road Tested! review in a few months to see how durable they are but if budget has been keeping you from getting a pair of headphones with ANC, you should take a very close listen to the Jabra Elite 85h.

Review Of Audio-Technica’s ATH-SR30BT Headphones: Carving Out The Under-$100 Range

by Anil Polat | Feb 7, 2019 | Air, Money, Pictures and Video, Tech | 0

Initial searches for a good pair of headphones for traveling often reveal the extremes of ultra-premium like the Bose 35ii, or the uber-budget Taotronics. Nestled in between however is a growing class of headphones that are bringing premium sound quality under $100.

The Audio-Technica ATH-SR30BT wireless, over-ear headphones fill out this sparse budget range, making them an attractive option for a wider audience of travelers. You can watch my full review in the video above or read on.

Sale

Audio-Technica ATH-SR30BTGY Bluetooth Wireless Over-Ear...

Bring Some, Not All Premium Features

The ATH-SR30BT headphones look and feel premium since Audio-Technica hasn’t cut many obvious corners on the design. These headphones seem a lot more expensive than they cost, with respectable sound quality for being both wireless and less than $100. More on the sound quality below but where Audio-Technica has cut costs is in places many non-audiophiles won’t notice too much.

First of all, there’s no case in the box although you can get a sleek Greekria softshell for under $20. Aside from the headphones themselves, a single micro-USB charging cable is provided.

Geekria EJB54 UltraShell Headphones Case/Hard Shell Carrying...

Also notably missing if you’ve gotten used to premium earbuds or headphones is active noise cancelling. It’s a feature you’ll find on more expensive devices like the Bose 20i – one that’s hard to fly without once you’ve tried it. Still, the ATH-SR30BT has noise-isolation, a fancy term for good soundproofing. Noise-isolation on the SR30BT is good – although you’ll still hear the outside world or jet engine noise – nothing compared to noise-cancelling yet the SR30BT punches above its price here.

Cutting From The Top

Wisely, Audio-Technica has kept the price of the SR30BT down by taking out features from the premium end of the spectrum. In other words active noise-cancelling, a case, an optional wired connection are all notable omissions common to headphones in the $300 range.

On the flip-side however, the lack on noise-cancelling (combined with Bluetooth 5) leaves the SR30BT using less energy consumption – resulting in 70 hours of battery life. That’s close to double that of any comparable noise-cancelling pair; which can be recharged full in 4 hours. The leather ear cups, matte finish, and metal accents all add to lightweight, mostly comfortable profile.

Fidgeting With Buttons

The button placements look, yet don’t feel, entirely intuitive. One of the main issues I encountered is the volume up and down buttons, which also double as song forward and back, are differentiated by long presses. When I say long press, it’s supposed to be 2 seconds although these are very sensitive. I found myself skipping ahead and back when I just wanted to turn the sound down, for example. The third button (for phone pickup, mute, voice assistant, etc.) also got in the way quite a bit; so if the beep before Siri casually reminds you how useless she is drives you mad, stick to controls from the device you’re connected to.

Buttons can be acclimated to but the longevity of the Audio-Technica ATH-SR30BT is in the best of its features: good sound quality, premium design, long battery life, and well under a $100 without cutting costs from the wrong places.

How Good Is This Portable USB Humidifier?

by Anil Polat | Feb 7, 2019 | Air, Car, Health and Fitness, Lodging, Pictures and Video, Tech, Travel | 0

People who travel frequently often look for the portable versions of most things. (Myself included.) So, although you might not need a portable humidifier, you might want one for your home, and look for a travel-sized version. The USB-powered MZTDYTL is just such a device and I picked one up to review. You can see my full review terribly named MZTDYTL, which is designed for home, hotel, or car, in the video above.

Portable Mini USB Humidifier, 200ml Ultrasonic Cool Mist...

You Can Fly Stunt Planes In Las Vegas: A Review Of Sky Combat Ace

by Anil Polat | Sep 11, 2018 | Air, Pictures and Video, Travel, Travel Journal | 0

Las Vegas is a city of experiences and if flying in the highest performance-certified aerobatic aircraft is your type of adventure, then you need to plan a visit to Sky Combat Ace. There’s a lot more in the video above but in short, imagine being flown in a stunt plane by a former jet fighter pilot, flipping and doing tricks for 15-20 minutes. Or playing laser tag with your friends as you fly an Extra 330 in a virtual dog-fight. Those are some of the types of rides you can choose, starting at $300. The Sky Combat Ace website describes their adventures as intense roller-coasters but let me tell you, there’s no comparison.

There are a few ways to save on the price, plus the complete review and other Sky Combat Ace tips, in my video Flying Stunt Planes in Las Vegas.

20 Random Facts About Traveling In Airplanes

by Anil Polat | Aug 17, 2018 | Air | 0

This post is part of Geek Takeover Week 2018.

air travel facts

Over the years, I’ve covered a lot of about air travel here, from surviving plane crashes to letting you know how terrible United’s business class is. But this is Geek Takeover Week so I wanted to take some of the more interesting and obscure facts sprinkled throughout thousands of posts, boil them down, and offer a highly concentrated dose you can shoot right into your neurons.

These are 20 random facts you might not have know about traveling by plane.

1. Fear of flying is called aerophobia.

2. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States limits commercial airline pilots to 1,000 hours of flight time per year.

3. 76% of people involved in plane crashes survive.

4. This is what those marshaling signals mean:

marshalling signals air travel

5. There are secret seats on planes you can reserve.

6. The average passenger plane angles up 12.5 degrees during takeoff.

7. Commercial flights often begin their descent 90 minutes prior to reaching their destination.

8. During an average 8 hour flight, time dilation causes you to be .0000003 seconds in the future compared to people on the ground.

9. 80% of plane crashes occur during the first 3 minutes and last 8 minutes of a flight.

10. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner’s engines are powerful enough to allow it to fly straight up.

11. Frequent flyers have about a 1 in 20,000 chance of dying in a plane crash.

12. Germans are the most internationally traveled people in the world.

13. A trip across the Atlantic Ocean is 9,000 times safer than it was in 1918.

14. People who survive the initial impact of a plane crash, yet still lose their lives, do so because they try to take their carry-on luggage with them.

15. Sitting any further away than 5 rows from any exit row greatly reduces your chances of surviving a plane crash.

16. People taking flights of 4 hours or more are more than 3 times likely to develop deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

17. The FAA has a tool you can use to calculate how much ionizing radiation you’re exposed to on a given flight.

18. Layovers shorter than 24 hours don’t count as an extra stop on a plane ticket.

19. The busiest airport in the world is Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta.

20. Passenger planes bank a maximum of about 30 degrees during a turn.

And here’s a bonus fact for you: on average, there are roughly 500,000 people in the sky, traveling in planes, at any given time!

The list goes on in the posts linked above if you want to learn more details. For even more knowledge, here’s 8 peculiar facts about Moldova, things you probably didn’t know about Egypt’s pyramids, and 10 (surprisingly) interesting facts about Porto’s bridges.

About Anil Polat

I'm the blogger and computer security engineer who writes foXnoMad while on a journey to visit every country in the world. I'll show you the tips, tricks, and tech you can use to travel smarter. Read More

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