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Low Flying...
Jan. 5th, 2006 03:08 pmDuring the last 6 months of 2004 I started to develop a weird "thing" about flying. For the first time in my life I started to get really uncomfortable at takeoff and for a few minutes into the climb, right up until the flaps were back in and the pilot had signalled the crew to get up and walk about. Given the amount I fly I found this to be a little odd. I know people who fly more than me; I know the odds of an accident (especially on major flag carriers of "real" nations).
However, I did used to work in the industry and have a fairly good idea of what happens inside a plane and did have a couple of unpleasant experiences in the middle of the year. In one, leaving Heathrow on a BA plane we started losing altitude about 3 minutes into the flight - about 1000 feet in a minute while the plane started a serious bank to the North East towards Stansted. The engines were pitched up and the plane felt pretty uncomfortable. We overflew Stansted and then turned back North.
The other incidents happened flying around the southern USA during the huricane season. It's not fun to spend 3 hours on a plane with the seatbelt light on while the pilot is flying _around_ cloud formations and the cabin crew are buckled in too.
Anyway, this year started, much as last year did - back in a plane. This time on a "local" hop from London to Copenhagen. The flight over London was stunning. Flying over a major city at night with a clear sky is pretty amazing for giving a person a little touch of future shock.
No flights next week but then it looks like I'll be flying around the world (the wrong way[*]) taking in Seattle, Tokyo and Seoul before heading home. Fortunately it looks like I'll be allowed to fly Business Class as there's a lot of business that needs doing and not much time to recover from the segments.
I'll do some more flying blogging this year I suspect.
[*] - about 2 years ago I flew around that way and was annoyed to find I lost a weekend. I left Seattle on Saturday morning and arrived in Taipei at 10pm Sunday night, a little under 15 hours later... I was hoping to fly the other way and get the day back.
However, I did used to work in the industry and have a fairly good idea of what happens inside a plane and did have a couple of unpleasant experiences in the middle of the year. In one, leaving Heathrow on a BA plane we started losing altitude about 3 minutes into the flight - about 1000 feet in a minute while the plane started a serious bank to the North East towards Stansted. The engines were pitched up and the plane felt pretty uncomfortable. We overflew Stansted and then turned back North.
The other incidents happened flying around the southern USA during the huricane season. It's not fun to spend 3 hours on a plane with the seatbelt light on while the pilot is flying _around_ cloud formations and the cabin crew are buckled in too.
Anyway, this year started, much as last year did - back in a plane. This time on a "local" hop from London to Copenhagen. The flight over London was stunning. Flying over a major city at night with a clear sky is pretty amazing for giving a person a little touch of future shock.
No flights next week but then it looks like I'll be flying around the world (the wrong way[*]) taking in Seattle, Tokyo and Seoul before heading home. Fortunately it looks like I'll be allowed to fly Business Class as there's a lot of business that needs doing and not much time to recover from the segments.
I'll do some more flying blogging this year I suspect.
[*] - about 2 years ago I flew around that way and was annoyed to find I lost a weekend. I left Seattle on Saturday morning and arrived in Taipei at 10pm Sunday night, a little under 15 hours later... I was hoping to fly the other way and get the day back.
