Topic: Aircraft Discussions

I don't know if anyone here is at all interested in aviation, but if you are, here is a place we can talk about planes!
Yesterday, Friday the 13th July, easyJet had their first A321neo delivered to Luton. The registration is G-UZMA and if anyone is going to the Farnborough Airshow on Wednesday, it will be there as a static display.

I personally hate flying. Just the fact that I am not in control and my anxiety acts up. I did fly last summer to New York since that is the only way I could get there in the time allotted but I did not enjoy it at all.

Back when I was a teenager I was a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol in the US. We did things like orientation flights in Cessna single engine aircraft, which was a lot of fun. It's quite different than flying in an airline and ironically much roomier than flying coach or just above coach. We also go to go up in 2 seat aluminum glider.

I wanted to join the US Air Force when I was that age - it was a very different political environment and my patriotism was an all time high. But when I told the officer about my eye sight I learned I'd be very unlikely to be a pilot. In hindsight I am very glad I did not join the military because I would not want to be involved in today's... difficulties.

Back on topic though, I highly encourage anyone who has the opportunity to go for a ride in a small single engine plane like a Cessna or even a full sized glider. It's really a lot of fun.

@Heavyarms55 I hope to get a flying lesson in a Cessna or similar plane soon.

@Matthew010 Best of luck to you!

@Heavyarms55 Thanks! It should be fun!

Military aircraft I've ridden on (sorry some of them I just know by their military names):
Blackhawks (many many times)
Chinooks
Lakota
KC 135
C 130 (many many times)

But the one military plane that I enjoy watching doing drills are the Warthogs (I think it's called A10's). In Ft. Bragg (well Pope Airbase next to it) they were always doing dive bomb drills, when I use to run in the afternoon, my last two miles I usually watch them as a I run to keep my mind from the suck lol.

@Tasuki Just out of curiosity: do you also hate taxis or any form of public transport?

@Heavyarms55 Smallest plane I've ever been on, is an airplane made by the Dutch manufacturer Fokker.
It was a long time ago, so I have no idea what type it was, except that it was propeller driven, and really small: I'm 6ft 2" and I couldn't stand up straight in it. Didn't have a lot of seats either.

I tried to Google it, and am tempted to say that it was a Fokker 50 or a 70, but those seems to be bigger than the plane I actually was on, so I'm kind of in the dark right now, as to which type it actually was.

@ThanosReXXX Nope. Land vehicles I am fine with. I guess it's the fact that your so high up in a plane and if something goes wrong your are screwed.

@Tasuki Ah, okay. I got the idea, from your comment, that it was the "not having control" part, so that was the reason I asked.

I can understand the sentiment, though. But statistically, it isn't any worse than being in any other vehicle. In fact: although they're in the news regularly, plane crashes are only a small percentage of the total amount of vehicle crashes that happen around the world, so it has actually been proven to be the safest form of transport, and that remains true to this day.

And for what it's worth: where control is concerned, it also doesn't matter, because even if you're the best driver, captain, pilot or cyclist in the world, there's always other participants in traffic, who could be the cause of an accident, so having control over that is actually only partially true, and in large part, an illusion...

@ThanosReXXX Do you remember the airline who flew the Fokker you were on?

@Matthew010 Haha, yeah. Fokker themselves. It was a LONG time ago, I believe it was in 1992. Back then, I was still working as a professional Offset printer/operator, and we got the assignment to print the takeover contracts for Fokker-DASA. It was an all night job, and it had to be done quick, so the ink was hardly dried when the contracts were transported to Fokker.

To express their gratitude for our professional and speedy way of handling the assignment, Fokker offered us the use of two of their smaller, propeller-driven passenger planes, to take us on a little trip. It was on Christmas Eve, and they flew us to London, were we had a full day of shopping and a luxury dinner, before they flew us back again around midnight.

@ThanosReXXX In that case, I have no idea what the plane was. Fokker 50s and 70s are small, as you said.

@ThanosReXXX Yeah I do realize what you said and yeah I know the statistics but I guess they way my mind works is that in a car or train I am not thousands of feet up in the air and my chances of survival are alot less if that makes any sense at all.

@Tasuki I can understand the sentiment, and there's obviously a reason why it used to be a habit for passengers to applaud if the plane landed successfully, so the feeling might make sense in and of itself, but that very sentiment most certainly denies all facts, so in that regard it actually doesn't make any sense at all.

And being in a compartment of crumpled/twisted metal is just as bad on level ground as it is in the air, albeit that the effects from being in the air are a bit worse, but not by much. Recent bus and train accidents happening all over Europe, not to mention a certain amphibious boat ride in the States that ended catastrophically have most certainly shown that to be true.

And statistically, we all risk our lives every day, even if we don't do anything dangerous. Just like the example I gave you in the previous comment, about other drivers being the cause of an accident, regardless of you yourself being the best driver ever and carefully sticking to all the rules, so it is also true that something else can/could happen, as in an outside factor that you simply have no control over.

For example: a driver could lose control over his car, and the second I exit my apartment, that car could be speeding straight onto the sidewalk and into me. My balcony could fall down with me standing on it.
A plane could crash on my apartment building, and so on, and so on. And do you know how many comets near-miss the Earth on a yearly basis? Heck, you could even make a fatal misstep slipping off the curbstone of the sidewalk, so it's all relative.

My point is just to live life, and not to worry too much about all the things that could potentially happen, and putting WAY too much energy into trying to gain some kind of imaginative control over factors that you can actually never have any control over. And personally, I never really understood fear of or loathing of flying.

I think it's a simply wonderful form of transport, and you arrive at your destination SO much faster.
I'd already be unpacking my suitcase, while all the poor souls that went to the same destination by bus or train, still have quite some traveling to do. And those touring car rides are also quite notorious for being on the "accident-prone" list. Much more so than any airplane ever was...

Food for thought, I'm sure...

@ThanosReXXX Haha yeah. As I said I understand what your saying still does t change the anxiety I get when even thinking of a plane lol.

Another reason I prefer land travel is that I enjoying seeing everything where as in a plane you can't so much.

@Tasuki Now that I can agree to, because it's logical...
And on shorter trips, I actually DO take a bus or a train, so it's not like I have a Jet fetish...

A friend of mine is very passionate about planets and in case you're interested I was close to becoming an flight attendant for Emirates a few years ago. I made it to the final interview among 1,000 candidates but my lack, at that time, in hospitality experience turned against me and the interviewers rejected me flatly.

@TheCurator I noticed that most Emirates and Etihad FA's are not from Gulf Countries...why is that?