Posted on 08/15/2023 2:16:22 PM PDT by MD Expat in PA
I have sort of a love/hate relationship with flying.
It wasn’t until mid-July of 1999 when I took my first airline flight from Baltimore to Toronto at the age of 37. It’s not that I avoided flying, I just never had an occasion or opportunity to do so up until then.
The longest trip I’d ever been on up until then was when my family – me, my dad, mom, my brother and his fiancée, drove from Harrisburg PA to Myrtle Beach SC, pretty much straight through except for a brief stop for breakfast and a few very brief “pit stops”, leaving for our epic trip by car at midnight on a Friday, a few days after Apollo 11 landed on the Moon (and yes we landed on the Moon!)
My dad had even “rented” a car, a big Chrysler V8 with AC and power windows that my mother’s cousin, who was the credit manager at a Chrysler dealer, arranged for us. (My dad ended up buying the car BTW).
The trip was good other than my dad not wanting to share driving duties with my brother and them arguing over it, and me being sandwiched in the back seat between my mother and my future SIL who didn’t exactly get along.
But it was an amazing experience for an 8-year-old kid who had never seen or swam in the ocean before, had never been on a roller coaster, eaten at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant, had never seen a salad bar at the steak house we went to the next night, and on the way down we drove over the relatively new Chesapeake Bay Tunnel Bridge, which was amazing and FWIW, before I developed a fear of bridges.
That and our hotel rooms – adjoining rooms – one for my dad my brother and one for me, my mom and my future SIL, had a color TV which we didn’t have at home and when not at the beach or at dinner or at the amusement park, watched the Apollo 11 coverage in color, and a balcony overlooking the ocean and had deep shag carpeting including on one of the walls – Groovy!
Fast forward to mid-July of 1999.
I had just started a new job as a bookkeeper/AP/AR/PR/office manager for a family-owned commercial window and door manufacturer – these were the types of windows and sliding glass doors found in high rise apartment buildings and they had a lot of work in the metro DC area – both new construction and renovations, and manufacturing, sales and installations.
Two weeks into the job, after the owner, my boss who had already told me about a new software package he recently purchased that would not only do estimates and serve as an ERP (as rudimentary as it was at the time) but was also supposed to interface with our accounting system (ACPAC) for billing, asked me to go with him for software training at this company’s HQ in Toronto so I could learn how to integrate it with the accounting software.
“Sure” I said.
“OK” he said. “I’ll book the flights”. : (
By this time, I knew I had some issues with claustrophobia and confined spaces (when going to the theater or to the movies for instance, I had to have a seat on the end of the aisle) and a fear of heights and a fear of big bridges, roller coasters, so I was a bit afraid of flying for my first time but was too afraid to tell my new boss.
But I had also long been fascinated with airplanes having grown up south of Baltimore and not far from what is now BWI (Friendship Airport back then).
We lived under a flight path and sometimes the planes on approach for landing were so low that I could see faces in the windows. I often wondered where they were coming from or going to and sort of wished I could someday travel to lands far away on one of those planes.
My older brother a couple of times also took me and his 3 kids to a spot where we could watch the planes land and take off at the airport and I was fascinated by it all.
The day of my first flight was the morning of July 18th, 1999, but it coincided with the news that JFK, Jr. had crashed his plain into the Atlantic Ocean. So, all the TV’s at the airport were tuned to CNN with wall to wall coverage of the plane crash. PLANE CRASH! PLANE CRASH! PLANE CRASH! was on every TV and everyone was talking about it. Not good for someone who was a bit nervous about taking their first flight.
This was pre-9/11 so my husband was able to sit with me in the departure lounge. I had done some things before hand to calm my nerves like not drinking coffee for a few days, eating lite, drinking chamomile tea and warm milk, researching calming techniques like calming essential oils, worry stones….yea, I know probably BS but it did make me feel a bit better.
My boss showed up and the three of us chatted before we were called for boarding. Then my boss and my flight were called for boarding.
We went down the boarding ramp but instead of going into a jet, a door opened, and we were led down metal stairs straight onto the tarmac to a waiting Turbo Prop plane. My boss was confused as he thought he had booked a flight on a jet. I was confused too.
I had asked a few people I know who had flown before including one my adult nieces about flying. She told me about her experiences, – “on takeoff you will be thrown back in your seat as you head straight up, your ears will pop and painfully, your seat will be so cramped that your knees will be jammed into the seat in front of you and up into your chest and you will be barely able to move, and then there are the turbulences!” (Yes, she has always been a bit melodramatic.)
I was a bit unprepared for flying on a turbo prop but wasn’t sure if the was better or worse than flying on a jet.
Fortunately, the flight wasn’t full and the seat next to me was empty, calming my claustrophobia a bit. My boss was seated across the aisle from me, also with an empty seat next to him.
The airline was on Air Canada and the flight attendant gave pre-flight instructions in both English and French.
I looked around and thought to myself, “This is a bus. A bus with wings but basically still a bus. And I’ve traveled by bus before, so this is OK.”
The only thing that freaked me out a bit was when the plane was banking. Just after takeoff, I looked out the window on my side and saw the ground and then the window on the other side saw nothing but sky. It was a bit disorienting as I didn’t feel the banking.
We encountered a lot of turbulence on the flight to Toronto but since I didn’t have anything to gage it by, wasn’t sure if it was normal or not. But I did glance over to my boss at one point and his eyes were popped wide open. But I decided to look at the flight attendants and if they were calm and not worried, I figured it was OK.
It wasn’t until the flight back home that I realized how rough the flight up had been. But looking back it was like driving on the Baltimore beltway over many potholes. No biggie!
I’ve taken several flights after that, mostly domestic, to Nashville, Tampa, Cincinnati, New Hampshire and one international flight from Philly to Manchester UK which was quite an adventure (ask me for more details if you wish).
I am a bit more nervous on take-offs than I am on landings. When I traveled to the UK and watched the flight tracker on my in-flight monitor, realizing we were over the ocean was a bit disconcerting, but I watched some comedy movies during the flight. I also met a very nice woman from the UK who was returning with her two kids from a vacation in the US.
Anyway, as I was searching for live streams of scambaiting videos I came across various live streams of “plane spotting” from various airports around the world and I am fascinated watching them.
My favorite so far is LIVE Plane Spotting at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) They live stream take offs and landings at the very busy LAX. Their commentary and the live chat are fun. There are also many such channels plain spotting from airports all over the world.
https://www.youtube.com/@AIRLINEVIDEOS
What I find most interesting is how many take off and landings happen every minute, all over the world and how safe and amazing air travel really is, the live streaming of the tower communications, the knowledge of the guys who run the commentary and the people on the live chat on the size and different types of planes - regional jets, cargo planes, private jets and international flights some on big Air Bus A380-800’s, where they are flying to or landing from, and all the different airlines, some I’ve never heard of before, and what at times seems to be chaos of all the vehicles running across the tarmac.
I love watching these birds take off and land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDrMbn7-srY
It wasn’t until mid-July of 1999 when I took my first airline flight from Baltimore to Toronto at the age of 37. It’s not that I avoided flying, I just never had an occasion or opportunity to do so up until then.
The longest trip I’d ever been on up until then was when my family – me, my dad, mom, my brother and his fiancée, drove from Harrisburg PA to Myrtle Beach SC, pretty much straight through except for a brief stop for breakfast and a few very brief “pit stops”, leaving for our epic trip by car at midnight on a Friday, a few days after Apollo 11 landed on the Moon (and yes we landed on the Moon!)
My dad had even “rented” a car, a big Chrysler V8 with AC and power windows that my mother’s cousin, who was the credit manager at a Chrysler dealer, arranged for us. (My dad ended up buying the car BTW).
The trip was good other than my dad not wanting to share driving duties with my brother and them arguing over it, and me being sandwiched in the back seat between my mother and my future SIL who didn’t exactly get along.
But it was an amazing experience for an 8-year-old kid who had never seen or swam in the ocean before, had never been on a roller coaster, eaten at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant, had never seen a salad bar at the steak house we went to the next night, and on the way down we drove over the relatively new Chesapeake Bay Tunnel Bridge, which was amazing and FWIW, before I developed a fear of bridges.
That and our hotel rooms – adjoining rooms – one for my dad my brother and one for me, my mom and my future SIL, had a color TV which we didn’t have at home and when not at the beach or at dinner or at the amusement park, watched the Apollo 11 coverage in color, and a balcony overlooking the ocean and had deep shag carpeting including on one of the walls – Groovy!
Fast forward to mid-July of 1999.
I had just started a new job as a bookkeeper/AP/AR/PR/office manager for a family-owned commercial window and door manufacturer – these were the types of windows and sliding glass doors found in high rise apartment buildings and they had a lot of work in the metro DC area – both new construction and renovations, and manufacturing, sales and installations.
Two weeks into the job, after the owner, my boss who had already told me about a new software package he recently purchased that would not only do estimates and serve as an ERP (as rudimentary as it was at the time) but was also supposed to interface with our accounting system (ACPAC) for billing, asked me to go with him for software training at this company’s HQ in Toronto so I could learn how to integrate it with the accounting software.
“Sure” I said.
“OK” he said. “I’ll book the flights”. : (
By this time, I knew I had some issues with claustrophobia and confined spaces (when going to the theater or to the movies for instance, I had to have a seat on the end of the aisle) and a fear of heights and a fear of big bridges, roller coasters, so I was a bit afraid of flying for my first time but was too afraid to tell my new boss.
But I had also long been fascinated with airplanes having grown up south of Baltimore and not far from what is now BWI (Friendship Airport back then).
We lived under a flight path and sometimes the planes on approach for landing were so low that I could see faces in the windows. I often wondered where they were coming from or going to and sort of wished I could someday travel to lands far away on one of those planes.
My older brother a couple of times also took me and his 3 kids to a spot where we could watch the planes land and take off at the airport and I was fascinated by it all.
The day of my first flight was the morning of July 18th, 1999, but it coincided with the news that JFK, Jr. had crashed his plain into the Atlantic Ocean. So, all the TV’s at the airport were tuned to CNN with wall to wall coverage of the plane crash. PLANE CRASH! PLANE CRASH! PLANE CRASH! was on every TV and everyone was talking about it. Not good for someone who was a bit nervous about taking their first flight.
This was pre-9/11 so my husband was able to sit with me in the departure lounge. I had done some things before hand to calm my nerves like not drinking coffee for a few days, eating lite, drinking chamomile tea and warm milk, researching calming techniques like calming essential oils, worry stones….yea, I know probably BS but it did make me feel a bit better.
My boss showed up and the three of us chatted before we were called for boarding. Then my boss and my flight were called for boarding.
We went down the boarding ramp but instead of going into a jet, a door opened, and we were led down metal stairs straight onto the tarmac to a waiting Turbo Prop plane. My boss was confused as he thought he had booked a flight on a jet. I was confused too.
I had asked a few people I know who had flown before including one my adult nieces about flying. She told me about her experiences, – “on takeoff you will be thrown back in your seat as you head straight up, your ears will pop and painfully, your seat will be so cramped that your knees will be jammed into the seat in front of you and up into your chest and you will be barely able to move, and then there are the turbulences!” (Yes, she has always been a bit melodramatic.)
I was a bit unprepared for flying on a turbo prop but wasn’t sure if the was better or worse than flying on a jet.
Fortunately, the flight wasn’t full and the seat next to me was empty, calming my claustrophobia a bit. My boss was seated across the aisle from me, also with an empty seat next to him.
The airline was on Air Canada and the flight attendant gave pre-flight instructions in both English and French.
I looked around and thought to myself, “This is a bus. A bus with wings but basically still a bus. And I’ve traveled by bus before, so this is OK.”
The only thing that freaked me out a bit was when the plane was banking. Just after takeoff, I looked out the window on my side and saw the ground and then the window on the other side saw nothing but sky. It was a bit disorienting as I didn’t feel the banking.
We encountered a lot of turbulence on the flight to Toronto but since I didn’t have anything to gage it by, wasn’t sure if it was normal or not. But I did glance over to my boss at one point and his eyes were popped wide open. But I decided to look at the flight attendants and if they were calm and not worried, I figured it was OK.
It wasn’t until the flight back home that I realized how rough the flight up had been. But looking back it was like driving on the Baltimore beltway over many potholes. No biggie!
I’ve taken several flights after that, mostly domestic, to Nashville, Tampa, Cincinnati, New Hampshire and one international flight from Philly to Manchester UK which was quite an adventure (ask me for more details if you wish).
I am a bit more nervous on take-offs than I am on landings. When I traveled to the UK and watched the flight tracker on my in-flight monitor, realizing we were over the ocean was a bit disconcerting, but I watched some comedy movies during the flight. I also met a very nice woman from the UK who was returning with her two kids from a vacation in the US.
Anyway, as I was searching for live streams of scambaiting videos I came across various live streams of “plane spotting” from various airports around the world and I am fascinated watching them.
My favorite so far is LIVE Plane Spotting at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) They live stream take offs and landings at the very busy LAX. Their commentary and the live chat are fun. There are also many such channels plain spotting from airports all over the world.
https://www.youtube.com/@AIRLINEVIDEOS
What I find most interesting is how many take off and landings happen every minute, all over the world and how safe and amazing air travel really is, the live streaming of the tower communications, the knowledge of the guys who run the commentary and the people on the live chat on the size and different types of planes - regional jets, cargo planes, private jets and international flights some on big Air Bus A380-800’s, where they are flying to or landing from, and all the different airlines, some I’ve never heard of before, and what at times seems to be chaos of all the vehicles running across the tarmac.
I love watching these birds take off and land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDrMbn7-srY
fast forward to jets. 737s and 747s. They speed down the runway and get into the air with ease. They climb steadily and are very comfortable. You get to point B from point A in a very short time. Except for the cost and the TSA experience, it's wonderful. I will never fly again because of those two things though. The TSA seperates you from your luggage rather quickly as the conveyor belt is at one speed and you are at another. There are many stories of TSA agents stealing (TSA = thieves, stealers and assaulters).
I’ve been flying planes since I was fourteen.
“”””It wasn’t until mid-July of 1999 when I took my first airline flight from Baltimore to Toronto at the age of 37. It’s not that I avoided flying, I just never had an occasion or opportunity to do so up until then.””””
On my sixth flight, I thought the landing seemed a little rough but when I tried to compare it to other landings, I realized that it was the first time I had ever been on a jet or plane while it landed, all of my previous flights had been at Jump School.
Longest flight I’ve ever been on was Newark, New Jersey to Heathrow Airport, London UK. Your feet get damned cold when flying at 38,000 feet. Also, I can’t sleep on planes, so between that, and staying up to avoid jetlag, I’ve done a few 30 hour days.
Some years ago, a local small airport was offering free flying lessons (IIRC it was a day of classroom instruction and then a flight on a two-seater with an instructor, with the Pilot in control the whole time but giving one the taste of what it was like). I was interested in signing up but my boyfriend at the time talked me out of it then 9/11 happened. I’ve never been on a plane smaller than a commercial turbo prop.
I’ve mostly flown on Southwest domestically and only had one sort of bad experience flying from Nashville back to Baltimore, sandwiched between two flight attendants deadheading back who were very rude not to mention the air conditioning was not working so it was uncomfortably hot and humid.
I tell anyone that will listen, don’t put anything in your checked back that you cannot afford to lose. TSA agents go shopping all the time.
Also people like Sam Brinton. Though only the ladies have to worry about that fruit cake.
I got to take a ride on a T-6 Texan trainer. Simulated dog fighting with another T-6. Wilder ride than any roller coaster. The pilot went straight up vertical until the plane stalled. He rolled it over on it’s back and pointed the nose down at about an 80 degree angle inverted. We picked up a lot of speed fast, then pulled 3 g’s pulling out of the dive.
I can’t sleep on planes either. When I travelled from York PA to Manchester UK, leaving late on a Sat night, my work’s travel agent found that the cheapest flight was from BWI to Philly and then to Manchester.
But when I got to BWI the flight was delayed so the airline arranged to have me, and several other passengers take a shuttle to Philly but it was a nightmare. It was some guy driving a big SUV who didn’t speak English and drove like a maniac up I-95 in a pouring rainstorm and talking on his phone the whole time, but we didn’t leave until after many delays and confusion.
One of my fellow passengers was a guy from the UK who was fluent in Arabic and told us he was placing football bets with his bookie.
I nearly missed my fight, literally went through customs, boarded and barely had time to buckle in before takeoff.
Landing in Manchester early on Sunday morning, I had to take 2 trains and a bus to get to my destination in Hull. By now I had been awake for some 48 hours.
I feared it since my first flight at 6 or 7. cried while boarding anytime I had to fly even into adulthood.
relocated and flying was only reasonable way to get “home” for family things a few times a year, so I forced myself to do it for decades.
found Jesus, and would quote Scripture thru turbulence and alarms going off repeatedly and various unsettling stuff that happens during 6 hour flights. (flying thru lightning storms, windy and/or aborted landings, mechanical issues, agitated fellow flyers, calls for doctor or medical person on board, etc. SO Thankful nothing real bad)
I hate being more than 3 steps up a ladder so 25-30k ft up kinda doesn’t sit well.
last few years I flew, I started thanking God for such wonderful views and started taking pictures of sky and ground, still hated take off, landings and in between, but I trust God more, to get us safely there.
more recent, family situations changed and I moved back “home”. don’t care to ever fly again.
Just fill your bag up with funky clothes, then they won’t want to dig around in there. You can do the laundry when you get wherever you are going :)
“I’ve been flying planes since I was fourteen.”
And from what I can gather, you’re a bit better than average at it LOL
When I was in grad school, I took flying lessons and bought an old C-135 that I owned for a number of years. I used it on weekends when I was a post-doc in Miami to be with my wife who was a grad student in Gainesville. I loved flying and the feeling of free free from earthly bonds it gave me. The feeling lessened somewhat when ground control requirement took over and the requiring an altitude reporting transponder was required for flying over restricted areas like the beach. When the requirement for rebuilding the engine came that would cost about as much as the airplane had (at the same time I was paying for a house), I sold the airplane. In my old age I look back with fondness on the pleasure it had given me. It was a feeling of liberation I have not felt since.
“T-6 Texan trainer.” A most excellent plane from the mighty North American Aviation in Downey, CA. In other news, in 1959 when NASA was looking to hand out a contract for a space vehicle, all the new astronauts wanted NAA to build for space, since they built the best for air. And yes, NAA build all the space vehicles including the Mercury, Jupiter, Apollo and Shuttle, with the assistance of 30,000 other companies
It is not just the TSA that is going thru your luggage, the bag smashers do as well.
When I was working overhaul on air liners, I always found a lot of cut locks from bags that had ridden in the cargo holds. No better place to do your stealing than a cargo hold, you can take your time and work unmolested out of sight. No cameras either.
Over 22,000 hours, 38 years, in a single engine small plane! Still here.
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