You cant beat a window for your first transatlantic. wait until you get
over northern Canada - unbelievable


Greenland is even better if its not cloudy.


On the way home on occasions I've even tried to get a left hand window seat
in the hope of seeing the Aurora. (did once - it was worth staying awake
for)

Chris

Reading the recent thread about observing meteorological phenomena from
commercial aircraft got me thinking.

I am a fairly frequent flyer (4 or 5 times a year) mostly to Europe and North
America on business. Most of my colleagues, concerned with legroom and bladder
comfort opt for aisle seats - sadly our company stopped business class flights
a few years back as an economy measure so everyone, even the big white chief,
flies cattle class.

Me, being Mr Sad******* ex-meteorologist but still with an interest in the
weather, opts for a window seat for daytime flights (I opt for aisle at night).

When my colleagues ask why, rather than tell them the truth that I want to look
at the clouds (which is an order of magnitude lower on the anorak scale than
trainspotting) I tell them I like to rest my head against the window so I can
sleep.

It's also quite difficult not to get excited when the plane is dodging CBs or
you see a distant anvil.

JPG

In message , JPG
writes
When my colleagues ask why, rather than tell them the truth that I want to look
at the clouds (which is an order of magnitude lower on the anorak scale than
trainspotting) I tell them I like to rest my head against the window so I can
sleep.

Don't be a wimp
I gawp at clouds, take photos of rainbows and other such weather related
delights, enjoy watching steam trains and using computers, and make
bagpipes for a living. Beat that if you dare. Otherwise, I think I'm a
reasonably normal middle aged married lady....
--
Anita Evans
North Cumbria
(anita[at]ra.evans.clara.co.uk to reply by e-mail)

"JPG" wrote in message
...
snip
It's also quite difficult not to get excited when the plane is dodging CBs
or
you see a distant anvil.



Excited is not quite the word I would use if I were in the plane!!

Victor

You cant beat a window for your first transatlantic. wait until you get
over northern canada - unbeleivable. if we really are into this
obsessive seat thing - aisle seat center row. get put next to a family
of 3 usually and dont have to move for anyone. it gives me an excuse to
stand by a door and look at the clouds there. give me a rough flight
anytime so i can feel the weather too.

Jonathan Stott wrote:

JPG wrote:

Me, being Mr Sad******* ex-meteorologist but still with an interest in the
weather, opts for a window seat for daytime flights (I opt for aisle at night).

There are other reasons to choose a window seat over an aisle seat - I'd
feel strangely worried about not being able to see the horizon (like
being stuck in an inside cabin on a ship or ferry) but still being able
to feel the plane pitch and bank. I have my very first transatlantic
flight coming up in just over a week :-S

Jonathan

I gawp at clouds, take photos of rainbows and other such weather
related delights, enjoy watching steam trains and using computers,
and make bagpipes for a living. Beat that if you dare. Otherwise, I
think I'm a reasonably normal middle aged married lady....

I can't beat the bagpipe-making, and I am not a married lady, but I enjoy
all the other things you listed. I also fly gliders, sail yachts, paddle
canoes, ski and country dance; and I study rocks, photograph flowers, watch
birds and research family history.

The reason I have time for all this is that I am a middle-aged layabout.

Anne

PS I always try to get an aisle seat on night flights, preferably one with
no-one else behind me, so that I am not disturbed every time they get up,
sit down, fumble in the seat pocket or flex their knees. On day flights it
has to be a window seat of course.

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 15:42:17 +0100, Anita Evans wrote:

In message , JPG
writes
When my colleagues ask why, rather than tell them the truth that I want to look
at the clouds (which is an order of magnitude lower on the anorak scale than
trainspotting) I tell them I like to rest my head against the window so I can
sleep.

Don't be a wimp

Tongue was firmly in cheek, of course.

I gawp at clouds, take photos of rainbows and other such weather related
delights, enjoy watching steam trains and using computers, and make
bagpipes for a living.
Beat that if you dare. Otherwise, I think I'm a
reasonably normal middle aged married lady....

I guess I'm a normal, overweight, middle-aged married man - but I can't beat
that. Renaissance woman, no less.

JPG

..... who cares what anyone else thinks! I was as exited as a toddler on his
first trip to the zoo! Photo's out of the window, trying to make an
altimeter out of the "puffy" butter packs and a plastic fork. Trying to
explain fractals to a very bored looking passenger while over the Greenland
ice and rocks at 32,000. I can't believe how blasé people are sat at that
altitude in a little metal tube. I'm sure most of them haven't got the
foggiest of the hostile environment they are flying through, or what it is
that is keeping them up even.
I really don't care if others think I'm an anorak, they are the ones
missing out. It won't be often I get to see views like that so I try to make
the most of them.

Les

"Victor West" wrote in message
...

"JPG" wrote in message
...
snip
It's also quite difficult not to get excited when the plane is dodging
CBs
or
you see a distant anvil.



Excited is not quite the word I would use if I were in the plane!!

Victor

Here's what I wrote after a that flight back from Vancouver, will give you a
taste of what's to come......

Had a window for the hop over the rockies. I'd sat on the right so I could
see the north shore as we climbed out. But as we got high enough to see over
Downtown, we banked hard left and I was then on the wrong side to see, just
had what seemed a swampy patch of ratty fields and scrap yards. Then into
the clouds......but they started to break up later, giving me glimpses of
brown hued crags with snow clinging to the shadows. The rockies are very
beautiful.
The change from mountains to prairie is dramatic and distinct. As the sun
sank down to cast longer and longer shadows, bathing the land in a deep
orange glow, we came upon Calgary, The sun was so low by now that even
slight depressions and ridges showed in dramatic relief. I could see the
paths of rivers that hadn't flowed since the ice retreated at the end of the
last ice age. the marks from long forgotten settlements, dips and moraines
left by the glaciers. Getting lower, over huge wheat fields, now harvested,
but showing the strange rounded patterns where the combines had passed. The
city seemed small in comparison with the plain that surrounded it, over the
suburbs....so different from the almost forest feel of North Vancouver, here
it was open...big sky country. The centre of Calgary rising out of the
plain, the myriad windows of the skyscrapers glinting with flashes of
evening sun. Then on final approach, the sun sank into the distant rockies,
the golden prairie glowing as the jagged peaks finally cast their shadow on
us and the sun disappeared, not to be seen again until hours later over
Greenland.
I lost my window seat after Calgary, stuck in between the
toilets, the most awful thing was seeing the moonlight glint at the bottom
of the windows as I paced up and down the plane....outside, above the
clouds, it must have been a beautiful sight. the moon bright....the
cloudtops lit by it's silvery light. graceful wings against a dark sky. how
envious I was of the people with window seats. some of them, so detached
from what they were actually doing, pulled down the shutters. Sleeping while
a surreal, beautiful night slid by outside. I got moved away from the doors
by the cabin crew. I'd found a small round window, about the size and
clarity of the bottom of a pint glass. Ice crystals growing between the
panes of glass as moisture trapped there succumbed to the temperature
outside. Trying to watch the return of the sun as the sky lightened from
deepest black, to deep royal blue and beyond. Dawn came above the ice, but a
blanket for cloud obscured all....I gave up then. resigned myself to the
fact that I really couldn't see out, I glimpsed bits of Ireland, and then
the seatbelt light came on as we started our descent into London. this began
over Liverpool, from 37,000 ft, at 545 mph, to a drab and grey standstill at
Gatwick. The country seemed small, dirty....the announcements over the pa
system sounded bored...uncaring. Everywhere was grubby...****!....it even
smelled like England.



"JPG" wrote in message
...
Reading the recent thread about observing meteorological phenomena from
commercial aircraft got me thinking.

I am a fairly frequent flyer (4 or 5 times a year) mostly to Europe and
North
America on business. Most of my colleagues, concerned with legroom and
bladder
comfort opt for aisle seats - sadly our company stopped business class
flights
a few years back as an economy measure so everyone, even the big white
chief,
flies cattle class.

Me, being Mr Sad******* ex-meteorologist but still with an interest in the
weather, opts for a window seat for daytime flights (I opt for aisle at
night).

When my colleagues ask why, rather than tell them the truth that I want to
look
at the clouds (which is an order of magnitude lower on the anorak scale
than
trainspotting) I tell them I like to rest my head against the window so I
can
sleep.

It's also quite difficult not to get excited when the plane is dodging CBs
or
you see a distant anvil.

JPG

In message , JPG
writes

I guess I'm a normal, overweight, middle-aged married man - but I can't beat
that. Renaissance woman, no less.

JPG
Blame my older brother - I wasn't allowed to do girlie things, had to
learn how engines worked and so on.
--
Anita Evans
North Cumbria
(anita[at]ra.evans.clara.co.uk to reply by e-mail)