Do You Like To Fly?

by Englishman 40 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Crumpet

  Did anyone ever those dreams where you kind of swin through the sky - you know like you fly through the air. I fly in my dreams lots, however the first time I had the dream I didn't believe it was a dream - I was convinced it was real. I was about 12 and woke up believing I could fly and told my sisters that I could. They wouldn't believe me so I jumped backwards off my 7 foot high cabin bed to do backstroke through the air.

  I really hurt when I landed. Don't always follow your dreams was the moral of that one!
• 

  prophecor

  I'm fascinated by flying. The first time on a plane was late 1980's. There's nothing like the thrill of being forced in the back of your seat by the rush of jet engines propelling you down the tarmac. The awesomeness of the plane going into convulsions as it takes off and as soon as its wheels leave the ground and the plane tilts heavenward....that crazy moment when it feels like the plane should be falling out of the sky because it looks like it's only going 55mph. Seeing another jet plane in the sky at the same time that your in one really helps put in perspective just how fast those things are really going. The other plane will whizz past so fast. It's almost frightening. The yaw and the roll, climb and descent as well as that final landing, a thrill ride a minute.

  I kinda' say a prayer on takeoff and landing. The awesome charge of responsibility that pilots have when taking the lives of hundreds of people in their hand is something I strongly consider, especially when my loved ones are going on a flight and I'm seeing them off at the airport. Watching until the plane taxis down the runway, waiting until that final moment when that awesome vehicle leaves the ground, and the tears that fall because you have to leave thier fate in God's hands and the skillfully gifted artist who fly those planes.

  I actually work right next to Philadelphia International Airport, and often watch in awe as those jets just seem to point their nose at God. I take my grandchild to the back of the runway strips so she can watch them land and take off. She's always excited. There's a space where you can see them overhead, about 200 ft above you maybe. Our parents often took us to LAX when we lived in Los Angeles for a days outting. We needed nothing but sandwiches and sodas, and it was a family event.

  Lastly, there's a Play Station 2 game that's much like a flying simulator that I'm actually addicted to. Ace Combat 04 Shattered Skies. It lets you get as accurate a feel for combat flying as can be had, without leaving your living room. As much as I love cars and GT3 and GT4 driving simulator / racing games, I've spent as much time, if not more, playing Ace Combat 04. I've often said to myself, once you've experienced the real thing, that of flying a jet fighter, one can happily go off and die, as there truly cannot be any greater experience in life to equal that.
• 

  tijkmo

  yup love it

  but wish i could afford to go 1st class as being tall is not so good in cramped airplane seats

  worst flight was coming back from oz in a seat that didnt recline...24 hrs in an upright position with the seat in front about 2 inches from my face...not pretty
• 

  chrissy

  Tho' it has its purpose, I no longer see anything glamorous or exciting in it. My husband is a MEII rated pilot and I have traveled a lot with him in single engine aircrafts. Although not licensed, I can fly, take off and land a cessna 172 myself... and I was a flight attendant at one time. I realize all that can go wrong between pilot and mechanical error. And after experiencing all those practice stalls (why would someone want to stall an airplane on purpose I would demand to know!) and emergency landings in a two seater for weather conditions, or having to hold a flashlight out on the wings to make sure there was no ice accumulating while my husband looked below for an airport (or decided we'd have land in a corn field), or riding backseat with a student who has no idea what he is doing....oy vey.

  I'm ok with it, but I also like the feeling of having both of my feet on the ground.
• 

  Netty

  I get nervous when I fly. I ask the doc for some valium. I take just a little to take the edge of the nervousness, then I can enjoy. I love looking out the window and seeing the beauty of it all.
• 

  Thirdson

  When I was young I liked it. I hate flying now, that is I hate the hastle, waiting, cramped seats, bad food or no food (which may be better). I dread transAtlantic flights and I've done transPacific and 12 hours in coach is a killer. Now, travelling 1st class is pretty good and the only way to travel. If I accumulate a lot of airmiles in the next year I'd consider using the miles form my business trips to upgrade flights for our next family vacation in Europe.

  Thirdson

  PS I've only travelled 1st class a few times on long-haul flights and the last time was for all three of us travelling after the airline made a mistake with our seat assignments. It spoiled Mrs Thirdson for life --- I don't think she wants a coach seat ever again so I don't think we'll travelling very often then.
• 

  dh

  i used to fly a lot of long haul flights with work, at least 7 hours at a time, usually two 7-9 hour flights back to back. i hate flying now, it is like catching a bus, i hate to do that too. too many people. when i used to fly long flights i would take a stack of prescription sleeping tablets and/or valium so i would fall asleep before take off and have to be woken up on landing... this is in my mind, the best way to fly, especially when you hit bad turbulance and everyone is scared, but you are so spaced out that you giggle at the thought of the plane going down, right before you doze back off to sleep, lol. i remember once falling asleep in the departure lounge and being woken up and asked if i was waiting for the plane which was about to leave from that gate...

  i honestly think flying in itself would be ok if it were 1st class or on a private jet, but in regular sardine class, i don't like it at all. long legs, hell no.
• 

  xjwms

  I enjoy flying.

  However it has to be a big plane.

  Small small plans give me panic attacks. Last year, I had to bury my head and have cold air in my face for 45 minutes.

  until that plane landed. The bigger the better. The smallest plane I can handle is the two and two on Midwest.
• 

  kls

  Flying ? Even the thought makes me wanna be sick This monkey don't like heights so the ground is just fine for me , i'll walk .
• 

  Abaddon

  I was in a 777 flying back from Taipei when it sprang a leak. Something to do with the AC I dare say. Water was dripping from the ceiling and several rows of seats had to be cleared.

  Basically, whatever the airline calls it, there is Cattle Class, Drone Class, and You Paid HOW Much? Class.

  I flew Ryan Air to Shannon last year. The seats were plastic, there was no tray of seat-back pocket; the safety instructions were laminated in to the hard, plastic seat back in front of you. And the seat-pitch was a joke, even for someone of 5'9". They could have cleaned it by hosing it down. And probably do.

  I always love to think I'll meet some charming and interesting person (okay, woman) and spend the journey in enjoyable flirtation and exchange of tall tales and bios. Hah!

  Hah!

  And not to put too fine a point on it...

  Hah!

  Okay... howabout the largest fricking Chinese person you've ever seen? He was a Buddha of a man. Snored softly all the way to Bangcock, his soft corpulense flowing gently all over my shoulder and theigh. So ugh.

  Then you have religious nuts... oh, hang on, those were my parents... praying on aeroplanes... nearer my god to thee prehaps?

  But mostly it is someone with the conversational reportiore of a cadaver.

  It's not like I chat away like crazy. Lord knows that's the last thing you want to have happen to you. But it is amasing how some people can spend seven hours right next to someone without so much as exchanging a sound with you, not a smile... weird, or maybe I'm the freak, I dunno.

  There was a French girl on the run from the police, but that was on a coach. Far better quality of fellow traveller on coaches.

  However, I cannot imagine many more enjoyable ways to spend a flight than being in 1st without paying for it, so by airmiles or their screw-up, yay you!

  When I was a kid they still allowed you to go on the flightdeck. I loved that, was a plane nut and knew loads. I also got to go on the bridge of a few hovercraft, one of the big ones that used to carry hundreds of cars over the Channel. Technically speaking, it flies. That was fun too; as the bridge is accessed by a ladder from the car bay (which is closed in transit), you spend the entire trip up there.