Who is drawn to flying?

[jis]

Actually there are airfans just like there are railfans, and my impression is that there are many more airfans than there are railfans. I count myself in both groups. I have been known to run off on an otherwise pointless single day round trip by air from Newark to Houston and back, to be one of the first to experience the 787 for example. That flight seemed to have more airfans than real passengers. I did a round trip to London two days after the introduction of the 777 too

So the claim that nobody flies just for the experience is very far removed from facts.

 

[TheVig]

Actually there are airfans just like there are railfans, and my impression is that there are many more airfans than there are railfans. I count myself in both groups. I have been known to run off on an otherwise pointless single day roud trip by air from Newark to Houston and back, to be one of the first to experience the 787 for example. That flight seemed to have more airfans than real passengers. I did a round trip to London two days after the introduction of the 777 too

So the claim that nobody flies just for the experience is very far removed from facts.

Exactly!

When Delta fast tracked their remaining MD80 fleet. Myself and others took final revenue flights on those birds. Not all those birds made it to the desert intact. One would be amazed what you can strip off a plane with minimal tooling that can be brought through security.

 

[Willbridge]

I confess to once choosing a flight in order to experience it. In 1970 I flew Berlin to Hannover and return in a BEA Viscount. It was five minutes slower than the flights using BAC 111's and Super 111's. Being used to the rocket-like blast-off of the jets I thought we were never going to clear the apartment houses at the end of the runway, but of course, we did. Otherwise, flights were to get from A to C. Trains were to see or experience point B along the way.


Note that the flight was at 10,000 feet, so if the weather permitted there was some sightseeing potential.

 

[Cal]

Once my Dad bought a ticket to fly from Boston to Hyannis on Cape Air because they were still operating the DC-3s and he wanted to ride one. But I agree that is pretty unusual.

Recently I was researching flights to get on a 767 or 757 before they’re retired. But the cost seems too much for domestic flying. When I next fly overseas I will 100% be trying to get on a 747 or an a380. All for the experience.

Actually there are airfans just like there are railfans, and my impression is that there are many more airfans than there are railfans. I count myself in both groups. I have been known to run off on an otherwise pointless single day round trip by air from Newark to Houston and back, to be one of the first to experience the 787 for example. That flight seemed to have more airfans than real passengers. I did a round trip to London two days after the introduction of the 777 too

So the claim that nobody flies just for the experience is very far removed from facts.

indeed. Another thing on my bucket list is to get on an innagural flight of an aircraft (for a specific airline — not the first test flight). I personally call myself an avgeek (aviation geek)

 

[frequentflyer]

Actually there are airfans just like there are railfans, and my impression is that there are many more airfans than there are railfans. I count myself in both groups. I have been known to run off on an otherwise pointless single day round trip by air from Newark to Houston and back, to be one of the first to experience the 787 for example. That flight seemed to have more airfans than real passengers. I did a round trip to London two days after the introduction of the 777 too

So the claim that nobody flies just for the experience is very far removed from facts.

Back in the early 90s one could fly from AUS to DFW, or IAH for $19.00 each way with no fees or taxes. OKC was $58.00 roundtrip back then with advanced reservations. Needless to say, I did and do ALOT of flying, hence my name. Back in the early days of FF programs you could rack up miles real quick and I have been known to do a two hub itinerary pack the miles. I will also take a longer schedule if it includes interesting equipment like said 777 on a domestic route.

 

[BlackDiamond]

Actually there are airfans just like there are railfans, and my impression is that there are many more airfans than there are railfans. I count myself in both groups. I have been known to run off on an otherwise pointless single day round trip by air from Newark to Houston and back, to be one of the first to experience the 787 for example. That flight seemed to have more airfans than real passengers. I did a round trip to London two days after the introduction of the 777 too

So the claim that nobody flies just for the experience is very far removed from facts.

Although I have never taken a flight specifically for the equipment etc. I confess to being an "airfan" as well as a railfan, probably going back to my families original flight from London to Toronto on a DC-6 followed by Toronto to Sudbury ON on a DC-3 when we emigrated from the UK to Canada when I was 7 years old. After 4 years in the USAF I went for my private pilot license and got as far as soloing but had to give it up when I decided to go to Grad School. I still enjoy flying even with the TSA business, the cramped seats, and disappearance of food service. Especially if you are lucky to fly on a clear day and get that unique view of the land you are flying over.

 

[Tlcooper44]

Actually there are airfans just like there are railfans, and my impression is that there are many more airfans than there are railfans. I count myself in both groups. I have been known to run off on an otherwise pointless single day round trip by air from Newark to Houston and back, to be one of the first to experience the 787 for example. That flight seemed to have more airfans than real passengers. I did a round trip to London two days after the introduction of the 777 too

So the claim that nobody flies just for the experience is very far removed from facts.

For a long while, I was a much bigger airfan than rail fan. Only recently have those flip flopped.
All my young life, I wanted to be a pilot or be an aeronautical engineer.
I would go plane spotting with a big camera and still do!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I have been known to run off on an otherwise pointless single day round trip by air from Newark to Houston and back, to be one of the first to experience the 787 for example. That flight seemed to have more airfans than real passengers. I did a round trip to London two days after the introduction of the 777 too

I consider myself an aviation fan but first builds can be unappealing as a passenger. Early 788's had enough teething problems that my first several flights were significantly delayed and early 772's were so loud that I felt half-deaf on arrival. Later 777 models improved noise levels substantially but I preferred quieter if older 744's over early model 772's for several years.

When Delta fast tracked their remaining MD80 fleet. Myself and others took final revenue flights on those birds. Not all those birds made it to the desert intact. One would be amazed what you can strip off a plane with minimal tooling that can be brought through security.

I think I flew every major MD80 variant (except the B717) on AA. Every weekday morning the departure curfew gave way to the MD80's signature jet blast that signaled the start of the business day. Hard to believe all that noise was coming from aircraft with hush kits installed.

Recently I was researching flights to get on a 767 or 757 before they’re retired. But the cost seems too much for domestic flying. When I next fly overseas I will 100% be trying to get on a 747 or an a380. All for the experience.

Most of the A380 fleet will be retired but special situations like BA@LHR and EK@DXB will likely see them in active service for many years to come. What remains of the 747 pax fleet is likely to be retired (744) or converted (748) soon. The A345 is probably gone for good with A346 soon to follow.

 

[basketmaker]

I think I flew every major MD80 variant (except the B717) on AA. Every weekday morning the departure curfew gave way to the MD-80's signature jet blast that signaled the start of the business day. Hard to believe all that noise was coming from aircraft with hush kits installed.

Love the DC9, MD80, 717 and always sit in the next to the last row window. One of the few planes I fall right to sleep on. Now externally the old BAC111 was the loudest and early Lear Jets were noisy too.

 

[Cal]

Most of the A380 fleet will be retired but special situations like BA@LHR and EK@DXB will likely see them in active service for many years to come. What remains of the 747 pax fleet is likely to be retired (744) or converted (748) soon. The A345 is probably gone for good with A346 soon to follow.

Indeed, which is why I am itching to get on one.

A340s, they aren't my favorite but if there's a convenient chance to get on one I'll take it.

 

[jiml]

Actually there are airfans just like there are railfans, and my impression is that there are many more airfans than there are railfans. I count myself in both groups. I have been known to run off on an otherwise pointless single day round trip by air from Newark to Houston and back, to be one of the first to experience the 787 for example. That flight seemed to have more airfans than real passengers. I did a round trip to London two days after the introduction of the 777 too

So the claim that nobody flies just for the experience is very far removed from facts.

You nailed this one, spoken as someone who flew the last AA MD-80 out of YYZ and incorporated the "Farewell to the F-100" on a flight from ATL to ORD. The pancakes in F were amazing that day BTW.

 

[jiml]

Recently I was researching flights to get on a 767 or 757 before they’re retired. But the cost seems too much for domestic flying. When I next fly overseas I will 100% be trying to get on a 747 or an a380. All for the experience.

You'll struggle to find too many 757's in the NA market and even 767's are becoming rare. Heck, unless you're really lucky or going to Australia or the Middle East, the last two may be a problem sooner than you think.

 

[jiml]

Indeed, which is why I am itching to get on one.

A340s, they aren't my favorite but if there's a convenient chance to get on one I'll take it.

The A340 is an underrated airplane, sacrificed on the altar of lower costs. I believe Lufthansa and Swiss still have a few. Fly them while you can.

 

[Cal]

You'll struggle to find too many 757's in the NA market and even 767's are becoming rare. Heck, unless you're really lucky or going to Australia or the Middle East, the last two may be a problem sooner than you think.

Actually with some test bookings 757's and 767's are quite easy to get on in NA, many of them are flying out of my two local airports (LAX and SNA). The last two... yeah.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Indeed, which is why I am itching to get on one. A340s, they aren't my favorite but if there's a convenient chance to get on one I'll take it.

I hoped to fly the VS A346 from LAX after a new Upper Class cabin was fitted. Next time I checked the A346 fleet had been relegated to NYC. Despite a substantial reduction in total travel time I thought it might work with a visit to the TWA hotel at JFK. I read some bad reviews and never pulled the trigger before the pandemic hit. Suddenly four-engine aircraft were all heading to the nearest desert and it seemed like my remaining options had already expired. At this point I believe LH is the only operator on record stating that the A346 is returning (only for a single season while they await more deliveries).

The A340 is an underrated airplane, sacrificed on the altar of lower costs. I believe Lufthansa and Swiss still have a few. Fly them while you can.

I can understand why the A340 pax fleet is being retired from a financial and operational perspective but hopefully I can still bank a ride before it's gone forever...unlike the B741, L1011, DC10, MD11, and Concorde.

 

[jis]

Moderator's Notes: The posts above were moved here from their original location in the "slow rail travel" thread at

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/who-is-drawn-to-slow-train-travel.80480/
Please feel free to carry on with the experential flying topic here...

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Many, many, many years ago I would think about doing an around the country trip just going from airport to airport as I love take offs and landings. My flights would be no more than 2 hours each . I never did it, but I did plan at least one trip where I purposely incorporated two connections. PHL-MSP-SLC-SJC

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Many, many, many years ago I would think about doing an around the country trip just going from airport to airport as I love take offs and landings. My flights would be no more than 2 hours each . I never did it, but I did plan at least one trip where I purposely incorporated two connections. PHL-MSP-SLC-SJC

Did you ever consider a job similar to a training instructor, implementation specialist, or on-site consultant? It would have been easy to bank hundreds of takeoffs and landings, although many of your destinations would likely range from boring to bad. I saw the following video a while back and it seems a little like what you're describing. Although I'm nowhere near as enthusiastic about flying as this guy is I do prefer to break up longer trips into shorter segments.

 

[Maglev]

I like flying first class. I am not very fond of airports or flying in coach.

I like to see what's flying overhead and right now, there's a Singapore Airlines A350 flying from Vancouver to Seattle. We're sometimes on the route for East Asia to America flights--I've seen Haneda to Chicago, Singapore to JFK, and Manila to Toronto fly right overhead. Yesterday, there was an Emirates A380 Dubai to Los Angeles followed by Lufthansa 747 Frankfurt to San Francisco.

Credit to FlightAware - Flight Tracker / Flight Status.

 

[Cal]

I don’t fly all that much so it’s kind of like a treat, and I mostly fly international. If I flew more I might have different opinions

 

[TaseMeBro]

I love travel in general, and that tends to manifest itself in a love of flying. Even last year, amid the pandemic, I cleared a bit over 120 flight segments (work essential, before anyone gets too excited).

I'm not as much of an "avgeek" as some - I have done a couple of inaugural flights for the experience, and flying on a new acft type for the first time is interesting, but I can't say I've travelled just to check out a particular plane.

I've definitely "flown for the sake of flying" - day trips with a nominal excuse of checking out a store or restaurant.

I do enjoy comparing carriers, seeing new cities, etc. I can't say I've had any domestic experiences in the past few years that have stood out, but some of the international carriers are still innovating and improving their J and F cabins.

 

[me_little_me]

I lost my interest in flying the first time I tried it -and I fell straight down to the floor. Luckily I wasn't too high.

In fact, 55 years ago, I liked to fly and when the 747s came out with their upstairs piano lounge, I upgraded a trip from Chicago to NYC on Northwest Orient Airlines. The plane flew into Chicago from Asia so I was on it only for a few hours. Never flew 747 First Class after that because I couldn't afford doing it more than once. Then they replaced the lounge with more seats so the opportunity was lost anyway. But it was a thrill. Once I started traveling for business, I quickly lost interest with the crowding and delays. However, although working in El Paso, it never occurred to me to take the train on business to Tucson or Phoenix. Probably because the company would never have found a way to pay for such an odd way to travel. Generally, I drove to those cities but flew to Denver and Bay area and anywhere else I had to go.

 

[MARC Rider]

I used to like flying, and, in fact, that was how I traveled from home to college several times a year each year. Only in my senior year, when I had a girlfriend who needed help (or actually company) driving her car to school did I start driving. But we would still sometimes fly east during term breaks. I found coach service pre-2001 to be perfectly adequate, though, of course the quality of service started declining from the moment airline deregulation started in the early 1980s.

I also had a couple of semi--scary flights in the 1980s involving turbulence or minor (so they said) mechanical mishaps that started making me a white-knuckle flier. It also didn't help that time I had a seatmate who was a Navy pilot who made all sorts of faces as our aging TWA 727 taxied, took off, and jinked around as it was climbing trying to avoid the thunderstorm cells. All he said after we reached cruising altitude was "Needs new brakes. Needs new flaps." We did make it into St. Louis without any mishaps, but I was a bit nervous. Another time, I flew United into DIA a couple of weeks after it opened, and the pilot misjudged the approach (first time he'd ever landed there), had to abort the landing and flew us around for another try. I experienced an actual "touch and go" landing at BWI on a British Airways L1011 on a flight back from London. It was scattered thunderstorms, but the pilot was landing on visual, and just as he touched the ground, the skies opened up and he couldn't see down the runway (at least that's what they told us), so we immediately blasted off, circled around and landed once the rain moved off the runway. Twice I was on American Airlines, flying to DFW when the pilot aborted the takeoff halfway down the runway because "a warning light came on." We taxied back to the terminal and sat around while the mechanics went over the plane, and then we went on our way. I even made my connections at DFW both times. Then there was the 2 AM departure from Tel Aviv on El Al. While we were boarding, we saw that the door was pretty much completely disassembled, and mechanics were swarming all over it. There's a lot of complex mechanisms inside an airplane door.

Anyway, the result is that I fly (can't dispute the safety statistics), but the minute I approach the airport in the car or taxi, I start tensing up, and I don't relax until the landing of my last flight segment. The minute the pane starts rolling down the runway, I start relaxing. This is irrational, of course, as we're still going 100+ mph and a lot of stuff could still go wrong. The cramped seating, the crowds, the TSA lines and general understaffing of service personnel contribute to making the experience less than pleasant. Because of this, for trips 500 miles or less, I'll drive or take the train (if possible) rather than fly. Otherwise, I just grit my teeth and endure the pain of air travel, as the unpleasantness is usually limited to about 8 hours, including time in the airport. I do sometimes take the train for overnight trips, but I'm doing that partly because I just enjoy the experience of riding a train overnight.

 

[BlackDiamond]

In all the times I have flown I can only remember 2 times where there were incidents. The first was fairly minor, a baggage door was not properly secured and after takeoff we circled and landed, door was secured and we took off again.

The second one was more "interesting". We were returning from a cruise out of Houston (IAH) United 1578 B737-800. Flight took off as normal but enroute it was reported there were snowstorms at Boston. This was the "snowmaggedon" year in New England, 2015. We circled for a while over Providence while they decided whether they could continue to Boston or divert to BDL. In the end they got word the runway had been cleared enough at Boston and we could attempt to land. The landing was pretty dicey given the state of the runway but I give credit to the crew that got us on the ground safely. We stayed over at the airport Hilton and I remember the next day getting or car out at remote parking me still dressed in my cruising clothes and my car covered in feet of snow; fortunately 2 guys with shovels from Massport came over and dug us out.

I recall we were sitting next to a young lady from Colombia to do some research at one of the Boston universities and this was her introduction to the USA, probably the first time she had seen snow

 

[UserNameRequired]

I have been on one commercial flight with a maintenance problem in the air. Bombardier CRJ. I guess the flight before the crew squawked one of the electric hydraulic pumps with an overheat warning. I guess the Minimum Equipment List for them allowed them to use the aircraft the next day without maintenance fixing the problem. On takeoff, guess what, the backup electric pump got the overheat warning too. If I remember correctly, the pilot dropped the landing gear back open on climb out to try to cool the pumps and the over heat warning went off. Then halfway to destination in cruise the over heat went off again and we diverted to not our destination and the airport rolled their resources to escort us to the gate. The CRJ has 3 separate flight control hydraulic systems, the first two have a mechanical pump (one on each turbine) with electric backup, they kept working fine. The third was the one with two electric pumps, that was the one that had the problem. You could tell while we were diverting the pilot had authority over the flight control surfaces from the crisp turns she was executing so there was no perception of danger, other than hoping the hydraulics wouldn’t get worse and quit, or a fire I suppose. This info came from a conversation with the copilot after landing.

The replacement aircraft they got us many hours later ended up having the toilet clean out hatch door thing not close properly and we sat on board for another hour or two while that was sorted out.

Most all other commercial flights I have been uneventful.