Wow, that pilot should be proud of themselves. Glad I wasn't on that plane. Landing for sure. I like when they reverse the engines (if that's the right term) after touching down and I'm back on the ground where I belong.
oooh I have been on planes that have landed in high winds, and believe me it's as scary as hell.... and I remember once we had to circle 6 times before we could land, everyone was scared witless... but we landed, and the whole plane applauded.. rightly so.. god alone knows what goes through a pilots mind when this is happening... but Kudos to him and his co-pilot... ...oooh incidentally I like take-off best...unless I'm landing in a stunningly beautiful country and then I can't wait to get on the ground...
Can I choose neither? I do not like to fly. Many reasons, none are rational. Serving in the USAF for 21 years, I've flown my share of miles. Most without problems. Why did I join a service that had 'Air Force' in it's title? I figured that joining any Military service, I would have to fly to get to my new bases. I knew I wasn't going to be a pilot, so my exposure to flying would be minimal. I love, and I mean love, to watch planes perform and never miss an Air Show. This year I will probably fly in connection with 3 vacations. I will do it, but I won't really enjoy it. I am getting better about it; probably because I'm older and just don't worry as much as I did.
I haven't flown lately but I used to fly a lot when I was living in California, given that I was making a lot of money and pretty much all of my relatives were in Michigan. At that time, St. Louis was the hub rather than Chicago, so I would fly from Southern California (either Long Beach or LAX), then change planes in St. Louis. My connecting flight would be North Central Airlines. North Central used prop planes and they didn't exactly exude confidence. The seats were torn, and it would look like there were pieces missing from the wings, but they offered a fun ride. Flying North Central was the next best thing to a roller coaster ride. Interestingly, looking them up, I see that, after a couple of mergers, North Central became Northwest Orient, and some of the most comfortable flights I have ever been on were with Northwest Orient. On another flight from California to Michigan, when my flight change were always in Chicago, I was waiting for a connecting flight from Chicago to Menominee, Michigan. They cancelled the flight I was scheduled for, apparently because I was the only passenger. Hours later, they boarded me on an American Eagle flight, where I was the only passenger anyhow. I don't know enough about planes to know what type it was but it was pretty small, and the pilot was not in an enclosed cabin; I could talk to him while we were in flight.
@Holly Saunders Of the two, take-off and landing, I have always heard that take-off presents far more inherent risk than landing. Frank
Perhaps... but I like that feeling of excitement in my stomach after the plane has sped up the runway and lifts off into the air.... yeaaaah...I love that ...
I prefer take-offs because once you get past it, reaching the smooth spot where everything settles down, you can relax for the rest of the flight.
My one plane ride was my last plane ride...so in this case I'd have to say I preferred landing on safe ground again.
I would have liked it but the pilot (a friend at the time) decided he would show off and do some airplane tricks like flipping over, etc. I asked him to stop but he thought it was funny that these things scared me and didn't stop. I have never gotten on another plane since and with all the terrorist, etc. stuff going on with planes now...there's no way I'm going to give it another try.
OMG really???...WoW!! A pilot who didn't give a care about his friend's sense of safety..I wouldn't trust him with a plane load of strangers...
He was my best friend's "rich" boyfriend and this was his own plane. My friend and I were double dating and she convinced me to try the plane ride. My friend is a dare devil and so was that boyfriend of hers at the time. But she even asked him to stop doing those stunts and he just thought it was all a big joke and kept doing them. When we landed I wanted to strangle him...instead I never spoke to him again and never got on another plane.