What's fun to do as PAX on a commercial flight?

Get a blanket, put it over both of your laps....
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I must be easily amused. There is no amount of staring out the window and watching the wing do all of its wingy things throughout the flight that I could tire of.
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Same here. I'm glued to the window from the minute we push til I unbuckle my seatbelt at our destination. Unless it's IFR or night over the SW. Not much to see then.
 
Agreed on the sleep part!


Tensions are too high, flying Commercial to do anything really fun. (People are worried about landing, taking off, where are the parents with their infant going to sit...etc

At my age sleep is a valuable commodity so there is nothing like looking up your eyelids for a few hours.


I will see you when I get there:

:sleep:
 
Bill Jennings said:
I flew them a couple times, they love to save fuel. I swear once they started to descend they chop the throttles to idle and never add any additional thrust. *wham*

I know the 727 lands hard, but these guys smacked that plane down hard, every time.
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Feh.

The old DC-9s didn't regulate pressure all that well on fast descents. I recall flying on the old Allegheny (Agony) airlines into Pittsburgh with a fast descent and ending up with a miserable sinus headache.

Back in the old days, heavy 727, short runway (DCA), long ground roll to rotation - we arrived at the destination and my (smart alec) friend told the SO that he could hear the gravel sniffer back where we were sitting...
 
TheGolfPilot said:
I like to follow the flight on Garmin Pilot or Foreflight!
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Same here. With no GPS. Just pilotage. I rubberband the magenta line along what I believe to be the path, based solely on looking out the window. It's like doing a puzzle, and I get to check the answer after the flight by viewing FlightAware.
 
wsuffa said:
Back in the old days, heavy 727, short runway (DCA), long ground roll to rotation - we arrived at the destination and my (smart alec) friend told the SO that he could hear the gravel sniffer back where we were sitting...
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Clearly bogus, Boeings didn't have sniffers, only Republic's had that...
 
Can't sleep, I mainly stare out the window and try to spot airports on the ground. It's surprising how many I've been able to see.

Occasionally I'll spot opposing jet traffic. It's fun watching the combined speed as it whizzes by several miles away.
 
HighFlyingA380 said:
My dad read 35 Miles From Shore when flying to St. Maarten. Hint: It's about ALM980 which crashed while flying to St. Maarten... (Side note: I recommend reading it. And it was written by my final private instructor.)
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That's a good book and a favorite place of mine. :D

docmirror said:
True story: I was flying out of LGA years ago and I was reading "The making of the Atomic Bomb"(which is a fascinating book BTW) for inflight entertainment. The two typical Brooklyn ladies sitting next to me were literally all made up, big hair, smacking gum and wearing way too much fake jewelry. One asked me about the book I was reading as if I were planing to actually sit there and "make" an atomic bomb! I think she said " exxx-cuuuse me, ah you plannink to make that atomic thingee?" in Brooklyneese. We had a good laugh for second and passed a very enjoyable trip going to somewhere way south, maybe ATL. We even exchanged phone numbers because they said they were going to a Cowboy game later in the year and we would 'do lunch or sumpthink'. It was a hoot.
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I was reading "Command and Control" on a flight over the summer and got asked what it was about. I replied without thinking, "About making nuclear bombs". I realized what I said about two seconds after it started to roll off my tongue. The guy looked at me, similed and said "The terrorist type or the government type" :rofl:

I normally read or look out the window on shorter flights. On longer I'll either watch the VOD or something on my iPad. I use to study but stopped after too many side comments and "worried" passengers bugging the FAs. Apparently the public gets scared too easily when they see a kid reading the "Airplane Flight Manual" and/or playing with an E6B.
 
When I was real young I used to always get a window seat and look at anything/everything. After about my late 20s I decided aisle seats were much better for me. I don't have to ask anyone to move when I need to pee, get up to walk, etc. The only down side for me is as soon as the wheels go up my eyes start closing, so if the other pax on my row need to get up they have to wake me up to do it. Worth it for me, though. I can sleep anywhere.

On flights to the middle east where I'm locked in forever, my schedule is get seated, take off, eat, sleep, eat, read or watch movie, sleep, eat, brush teeth/shave/wash face, land, follow the cattle down the ramp.
 
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I recall flying AA from DFW-ICT about five years back, returning from Cancun. Being the weirdo I was (am), I pulled out a sectional while sitting in the gate at DFW. A nearby female Eagle pilot saw it and we struck up a conversation. She was cute...forgot to ask for her number... :/
 
Watching the takeoff or landing with synthetic vision on Foreflight is interesting
 
OkieFlyer said:
I like to practice an ancient and almost forgotten form of communication. Many have not heard of it, it's called speech. If the person next to you is willing to engage in speech with you, it can sure be fun and help pass the time.
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That can be both good and bad. On an AA Super 80 from Atlanta to OKC last year, I was in the seat behind a young military man headed to basic. And he was stuck next to a very, very talkative young lady. The flight attendant was giving me looks of "i am so sorry" and "i can't do anything about her" as I was making motions to strangle her after the first 30 minutes of straight nonsense. I waited to deplane last to talk with the pilots without having people pushing me around and they were talking about how bad that girl was and that as she got on the plane they KNEW she was going to be a pain.

Usually when I fly I get the airport layouts loaded so I can track where we are on the airport. Waiting for a flight, just listening to liveatc. And in flight, window seat, trying to unglue my eyes from the wingy bits. I point out airports and beacons and other airliners and my girlfriend rolls her eyes. The A380 ride was my favorite :yes:
 
get gogo and post silly stuff on PoA.
 
If I'm flying with my co-workers I sometimes enjoy talking about aviation accidents especially if I can reference one in the same type we're in.
 
eman1200 said:
get gogo and post silly stuff on PoA.
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I like being able to use the excuse of being on a plane to not have to answer my phone or deal with people on the ground, I don't want to pay for the privilege to be bothered while I'm enjoying myself at FL330 :yes:
 
Henning said:
When did this become an issue? :confused: I had some old ******* ***** at me on a flight and start a fuss with the flight attendant because I reclined my seat. She even had the nerve to ask me to put my seat upright. I told her I most certainly wouldn't. If I wanted to buy a seat that didn't recline, I would fly Spirit.
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It *started* as a complaint of pax behind the reclining person getting a laptop smushed that was sitting on the tray table but rapidly was turned into some sort of made up problem by the general flying public misunderstanding the issue.

It never affected anyone who wasn't using the tray table. It's not like the damn seat pitch is so close you can recline and smack the person behind you in the face, although the airlines are probably trying that pitch out next year.

Nowadays it's just a new way to vent and whine about the overall seat pitch. They even make and sell little wedges that people jam into the seat to keep them from reclining. As if it matters.

It's popular with the mouth breathers to whine about reclining now.

I could see where someone 6' 3"+ might lose their kneecaps. Anyone who's femur is shorter than the seat pitch is just whining for no reason at all.

Claustrophobia isn't the same as being hit by the thing. Poor babies.

Never been bothered by the person in front of me reclining. The tray table isn't a desk and I've owned appropriately sized laptops and other gear for years for operating in tight spaces.

The people who bring a 17" desktop replacement laptop on board an airliner are utter morons, even with a first class ticket.

So basically the whole anti-recline fad is just that. A fad. Some hard hitting documentary TV show should put a pretty girl in an airliner seat and bust out a tape measure to show the droolers how tall you really have to be to actually be touched by the seat reclining in front of you. Science!
 
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