Great views from the plane

My wife always keeps a close eye on the flight attendants to see if she should go into full-fledged panic mode. She figures if they get scared, we're all fucked.

 

Haven't flown into Oakland, but San Francisco is definitely right off the water.

Personally, the WATERWATERWATERWATERWATERWATERWATERWATER BAM airports don't bother me. If I'm going to crash land somewhere other than an airport runway, water seems a bit more forgiving that terra firma.

 

At a high speed, it all sucks

 

Got a couple stories in that regard. Was on a flight once where out of nowhere, all the oxygen masks just drop. This happened to be about a week after the ValuJet plane went down in the Everglades.

Flight attendant gets on the intercom and begins to speak. Her voice is cracking with emotion and she's trying to keep from breaking into tears. Uh-oh. The entire cabin is silent from there on out, save for three old ladies a row in front of me, who are giggling nervously. Damn old ladies--you've lived a full life; I'm not too damn happy about going down in a plane crash before I hit 30.

Turns out, it was just a mechanical issue with the cabin pressure gauge and we were able to land safely. But, our fearful, not fearless, flight attendant didn't exactly make that half hour to the ground very comforting.

Another time I'm on the red eye from Vegas to Atlanta, exhausted from a weekend of gambling and just ready to be home. Uneventful, smooth flight, and we're coming into Atlanta for landing and the pilot pulls the iron bird back up in the air. No problem--been through this drill before. Probably traffic on the landing strip and had to swing around and try again.

Not this time. Captain comes on and says they've got an indicator that says they may have a problem with the flaps. Well now, that can make stopping a little difficult, can't it? Says they're going to fly a while and check it out. We ride eastward for about 30 minutes and then they turn the plane around. No further word from the captain, but a flight attendant comes through the cabin, stops at the row behind me and tells the young mother with her infant, " Be sure you're holding the baby securely and tightly". Day-um. Again, we landed without incident, but coming in to the ground was a blood pressure boiling experience I'd care not to do again.

 

I hear ya--you're spot on.. Just seems a little less painful in the twisted recesses of my mind.

 

Didn't work out so well for these guys...

 

Flaps have nothing to do with landing, per se - that's spoilers, which pop up off the wing after touchdown and prevent the plane from taking off again. Flaps give the wing an extended, rounded edge, making the plane more maneuverable at low speeds. I'd guess the go-around was out of an abundance of caution. But what do I know. (At any rate, it does suck that they kept you uninformed.)

Princess Juliana, the airport in St. Maarten by Maho Beach, also has a mountain at one side and takeoffs are forced to turn soon after liftoff. More videos of the place here: http://www.flightlevel350.com/aviation_videos.php?airport=SXM

As for my own experiences: Seeing the massive Boeing building just before landing at Sea-Tac is pretty cool. Vegas, as mentioned, can be awesome. Some routes into Phoenix take you right over Sun Devil Stadium. The River Visual into Reagan National - as mentioned, with the late right turn to line up with the runway - is gorgeous to see all of the monuments. Reno was a bit hairy for me; you crest over a ridge and get down pretty quickly into an area that's often quite windy.

Some places I don't have the balls to fly to:
Narsarsuaq, Greenland:

(like going into DCA, except you're surrounded by mountains)
Lukla, Nepal:

(the airport at Everest Base Camp; runway leads to a cliff)
Courchevel, France:

(like Lukla but worse)
Saba Island in the Caribbean:

(cliffs and water at both ends of runway)

 

I like the one where you come in, and the people all look like ants . . .

oh, wait, never mind. Those ARE ants.

 

Hustle, I'd like to watch those videos, but all the links are connected, so it isn't working. Can you help us out?

 

My God did I screw that up. Fixed now.

Here's a link (posted correctly, I hope) that features some of these and a few others: http://www.oddee.com/item_93109.aspx

There's a pic on there of an MD-11 that's just as harrowing as the KLM jumbo in the earlier video.

 

Damn, that one came in a lot lower than the other examples. I was actually kind of scared for the folks on the beach. The wheels barely cleared the fence.