Do You Love to Fly?....Hate Flying?....Or??

Not a lover of flying the most has been 2 hours, that was enough for me, i always have a chuckle when they say put your seatbelt on, come on if it crashes is that little thing going to save you, i don't think so.
 

SeaBreeze said:
Some people really love to fly in airplanes, some don't care about it either way, it's just a means of transportation. Some people hate to fly, and I'd have to put myself in that category.

I could probably count the amount of times I flew in a plane on one hand, and that's a good thing. I'm not really afraid of flying, but I don't find any pleasure in it, except maybe the destination the couple of times I vacationed in Hawaii. I like watching the ground from above at both take off and landing, and I like to see the clouds from above.

I have never had to put up with the new TSA nonsense, of either frying you with radiation, or giving you a physical pat-down like a common criminal. I'd probably opt for the pat-down though, as I'm not a big fan of any x-rays and will avoid them whenever I can.

How about you? Do you like to fly, hate it, or don't care? Has anyone here never flown before? Any bad experiences at airports??
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I had dreams of flying for many years which I know related to the desire to overcome problems;rise above them literally.

The first time I flew in a plane I found it exhilirating. I have problems nowadays with nausea for the meds I used to be able to take to control my motion sickness I no longer can take. But I've found alternative methods to overcome it though with not the absolute efficiency I'd like.

Consequently that is the issue I have with flying that stops me from completely enjoying it. But I still experience that thrill at liftoff. I've had some nervous wrecks sit next to me though, that take away from the enjoyment of it. Their fear is like a wave that spills over and wets the plane.:aargh:
 
Haha-never saw this thread before-probably because I would see the Traveling discussion and pass right over it as I DO NOT FLY. Ever. In fact,living in a rural area,our hospital,in order to stay in business,has had to become a limited bed hospital-meaning that pretty much everyone who needs critical care will be flown out of county. So everyone here is encouraged to have an insurance policy with both of the life flight companies that service our area. You get no choice on who would fly you out as it`s based on whomever is available at the moment so you need policies with both. Do I have a policy. Nope. Because (and I have told my family this as well) I do not want to be flown out. I really don`t even want to be taken out by ground ambulance (I,in fact,refused to be when I was ill with meningitis 14 years ago) but I for sure don`t want to go by helicopter. Pretty stupid,I know,but that`s how severe my fear of flying is. I never wanted to fly,never had any desire to,but when my dad was dying across the country,the doctor told me I needed to come NOW. So I went. And did fine. In fact,I ended up comforting a fellow passenger,a frequent flyer,who had an unexpected panic attack. But then,on our arrival home in San Francisco,we had an aborted landing. Actually touched down and then went right back up. The flight attendents became very,very nervous,as did most of the passengers. There was another plane on our runway. I decided then and there that I would never fly again,my opinion being that if they didn`t know there was another plane there long before we actually touched down,I wanted nothing to do with flying. At the time,I had two friends who had been flight attendents for over 18 years and both said they had never experienced an aborted landing-aborted takeoffs plenty of times but never a landing. And of course it had to happen to me.

I have to say,it makes me feel good to see how many people here don`t fly or like flying either. I always feel so alone in this,always being told I am missing out on so much by not flying. But so far,I don`t feel like I`ve missed anything. I`ve seen everything I`ve wanted to see by driving there and enjoyed the trips along the way.
 

Hate to fly, but love being up in the air to see the view. Have to sit by the window so that I can see out. Usually take a book, but who can concentrate on reading when there is the fear that the wing might fall off! I am so bad at flying that I only do it if there is no other way to get where I need to be and if I have anxiety meds to get me thru! Something about that cabin door closing that makes me want to run screaming down the aisle.
 
Though as I said I don't suffer from fear of flying it has to be said that it is one of the most common phobias out there.

When you consider the confinement, lack of control and risk factors no one should feel like a woose if they have a fear of flying.

I mean you take a human being, stick them into a container that removes them from the ground and puts them up miles above the earth where they know if something goes wrong they can hurtle to the earth and become a puddle.:aargh:

Oh, let me shut up. Now I won't ever fly again!!
 
I hate it. I traveled a lot for some of my jobs...airport to hotel to client to hotel to airport, rinse and repeat. I also don't like feeling like I'm part of a cattle herd being packed into a boxcar. I had so many flights cancelled or delayed and, when traveling for business, it can just completely screw up what you're trying to accomplish.

The only bad incident I had was we were coming into an airport to land, don't remember which but on time for once, and the plane had just touched wheels to the ground and suddenly the pilot went full throttle and into a steep climb. I knew what that meant and sure enough, after we got in the terminal, I heard that another plane had taxied into our path just as we touched down. Could have been messy but fortunately our pilot was alert to what was ahead.
 
Since I like to travel I have no choice but to fly most places. I've had some of the most incredible experiences in airports, especially. Some really funny, some disruptive, some frustrating but overall, I wouldn't trade my mode of travel. If nothing else, it's always interesting and a lot of times fun.
 
I go business as often as possible, when flying out of the country. If it's way too spendy I'll go one way business and the other economy but it's such a let down after being totally pampered in business class. Yes, I am spoiled.
 
SeaBreeze said:
Some people really love to fly in airplanes, some don't care about it either way, it's just a means of transportation. Some people hate to fly, and I'd have to put myself in that category.

I could probably count the amount of times I flew in a plane on one hand, and that's a good thing. I'm not really afraid of flying, but I don't find any pleasure in it, except maybe the destination the couple of times I vacationed in Hawaii. I like watching the ground from above at both take off and landing, and I like to see the clouds from above.

I have never had to put up with the new TSA nonsense, of either frying you with radiation, or giving you a physical pat-down like a common criminal. I'd probably opt for the pat-down though, as I'm not a big fan of any x-rays and will avoid them whenever I can.

How about you? Do you like to fly, hate it, or don't care? Has anyone here never flown before? Any bad experiences at airports??
Click to expand...

I'm like you Seabreeze in that I am not afraid to fly, nor do I "just love it", it's just the fastest way to get from point A to point B. I did a lot of road travel over the years, and I really got tired of all the driving. So now, if I have a trip that is over say 5 hours?? I want to fly if I can;) I've heard it said you are less likely to crash in a plane then in an auto, so if I was going to be afraid, I'd be more afraid of our highways;)
 
I still find flight exhilerating. Since 911 it's become more of a pain in the butt due to heightened security, that's for sure. But that feeling of soaring off to faraway places through the skies still has a romantic appeal to me. It feels like escape and adventure. I think if I flew routinely for business I would feel very differently, however.

I deal with nausea issues which isn't thrilling but it doesn't stop me and I do understand the things people do not like about flying. Some nightmare tales out there.:fword:
 
My first flight was a non stop flight to Johannesburg in South Africa and I was surprised to see so many people up walking around and visiting with each other. I love the dialects I heard, it was very exciting. I flew on several different planes on the 2 week trip and a helicopter flight over Victoria Falls. My only regret is that I didn't fly first class on one of the over seas flight. It would have been anther adventure as I call my exotic trips. Another fun flight was an older prop job from Dallas to home, we were so low we could recognize things when were close to home.

On one of flight to Africa the pilot said if you look out the window you will see Mt Kilimanjaro, then he tipped the plane so that we were look down into it. We were so close we could not take a picture of it. I thought it looked like a volcano and it was actually a combination of 3. On the way back the pilot didn't even mention it. A passenger saw it and I was able to take a picture of it this time.
 
Everything about flying has become impossible..from getting through the airport, airport security and struggling with others who are carrying on everything they can, including meals, since checking baggage and food on planes is so expensive. The seats are closer together and when I have to fly coach, I've made a life long impression on my seatmates, whether I wanted to or not.

Jet Blue is reducing the seat space. Many other airlines are making it so the seats don't recline, there are no TV screens on the back of the seats in front of us and their horrible meals - well I don't buy them and I only fly when I can go business or first. I love getting to my destination and back home again, but the fun part of flying..well, the joy is gone for me.
 
We love to travel and fly often, always international. I used to find flying exciting but now it's more like a means of transport. I've done it so much I'm well-prepared.
 
I hadn't flown until I was 18 and my first experience was a three leg journey from SLC to San Antonio for AF basic. I then flew to Okinawa via the Polar route. Returning 18 months later via Hawaii. Flew to Phil, NYC to Germany. Fast forward 2 years later flew from Germany to Boston to South Carolina.

The pilot had been flying for 14 hours solid and was tired. When we flying in SC one of the passengers who had been on a flight crew for 25 years started to freak out because of the approach was problematic. He freaked we all panicked and kissed the ground when they let us out. Then flew home coming into SLC in a low cloud cover, cross winds and landed rather abruptly. I took the bus home and made a silent vow to myself that you'd never see me up there again.

23 years later I was required as part of my job to fly to Seattle to dry run our disaster recovery plan. I tried in vain to avoid the flight, no luck. When coming into Sea/Tac the pilot came on and annouced as he put it, 'We've seemed to develope a problem and will be circling for a litte while'.

1 hour and 45 minutes later he announced that we are landing, he went on to explain that it seems that we may have lost our hydralics that control our landing gear. We were not to worry about the emergency vehicles that are lining the runway, it was normal and precautionary. When we finally landed successfully and entered the terminal we found out they had been planning a belly landing and they had ambulances and other emergency vehicle to haul bodies. They had stopped all incoming outgoing traffic and we had been circling to dump fuel.

5 days later we went to Sea/Tac for the return flight and I noticed that the numbers on the tail was the same as the original flight up. I asked the flight attendant if they were unique or did all planes have that same number. Yep same plane. Haven't been on a flight since.
 
I was 59 when I first flew, it was very exciting. Now it would be just a way to get where I was going. I would love to fly in an AF jet.
 
I fly because it's to far to drive (approx 3000 km) to go to Queensland each winter for a month don't partically enjoy it my hands get all sweaty. One of my friends has been to America twice and I would love to see some of the tourist sites over there but don't like the idea of traveling there and back I always say two hours is enough for me flying up to the Gold Coast ( Queensland)
 
Our flights range from 7 hours to 14 and with transfers it's often 24 hours in total. But now we are smart and spend a night in a hotel before our transfer.
 
OK, so I am a former pilot (Captain) for United-Continental. Do I like to fly? No. I love to fly! If I were allowed, I'd be back in the cockpit today. I will admit the downside of flying is the airport mess that people have to go through and the TSA procedures haven't helped to give flying a good reputation either. On the upside, you get to where you are going faster, prices have actually come down, especially when the airlines have their little mini price wars. For those that have a fear of flying, do you realize that there has not been a fatality accident by a major airline since 2001, so flying has become much safer. Those of you that fly business or first get treated extra nice, although you pay to be treated extra nice.

I never touched my wheels down and then throttled back up, normally puddle jumpers are best for doing that, bigger jets like the one I flew, Boeing 757 and 767 would have a difficult time doing that. I have already been in my final decent and about a mile from the runway and was told to pull up and do a go around. That is not fun and it scares the crap out of a lot of passengers, so I always made an announcement very quickly and identified the issue.

Here is a great job by a Boeing 767 pilot

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/video-two-airliners-almost-crashed-at-barcelona-airpor-1601002234
 
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I don't enjoy flying anymore, but recognize that it's the only way to get across the country quickly, so.... When we lived in Turkey in the late 60's, early 70's, we used to fly domestically on THY (the Turkish national airlines known then as Turk Hava Yolari); the joke was that their unofficial slogan was "Fly and Die with THY" as their domestic safety record was abysmal.

It was like flying on some third world airline at times. You'd get on board and have to step over the large suitcases people would leave in the aisles because occasionally the overheads were missing. The seats were often broken, in-flight catering usually consisted of a large bowl of hard candy passed from seat to seat and once most of the plane was occupied by a wedding party going to Izmir.....much dancing, singing and drinking and the bride walked around handing out candy to everyone. She had a humongous wedding dress on and could barely make it down the aisle. Once there was a crate of chickens strapped into the seat across the aisle. I'm not exaggerating. The attendants didn't sit down for take off or landing; they just stood in the aisle hanging onto the back of what they hoped was a stationary seat.
 
I'm perfectly comfortable with flying, but, not when someone springs a ride on their private little plane on me. I was dating a guy that had a bunch of toys and one happen to be a pretty little plane, four or six seater, I don't remember exactly the size, I just remember him driving us to the small airport and up to the hanger for evening ride and me freezing up and saying hail no. I'm surprised we continued to date after that incident, but, I just couldn't picture him being in control of the plane, I went into complete panic mode then and there.

I do enjoy flying over all, just on large aircraft piloted by someone I'm almost certain has hundreds of hours of flight time behind them. I'm not thrill with take off and landing, turbulence and such, but over all, thinking back on my first times up in the air, my thoughts were this is the greatest thing ever.
 
I had about 30,000 hours of flying. Would you have flown with me?

The last two posts gave me a good chuckle for the day, especially the post about the Turkish flights. That's funny.
 
Umana umana umana, Oldman, as long as there are at least fifty other seats and as many other passengers probably.
 

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