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Seeing Greenland and Iceland from the airplane window on my first trip to England is something I’ll never forget.
On a redeye to DC, zooming past the lit-up Washington Monument, it looked close enough to touch.
The Grand Canyon.
The desert where I grew up. I never realized the vastness of it until I was above.
I always got a thrill out of flying into San Diego on a night flight. The descent is so steep, it always felt like we were going to land in Balboa Park. It was especially thrilling to fly over a Padres night game!
I had a flight from San Francisco to London and we flew over the polar circle and northern Canada, the lakes, the ice, icebergs... clear skys and absolutly amazing views
The first time I flew to Shanghai as we were descending to the airport I saw about 600 cargo ships in the mouth of the port. 600 of those large ships that are full of containers. That's by far the largest sea port I've ever seen and brought home to me something I hadn't realized because I (like so many people) had not been paying attention to China: the realization of China's immense economy and affect on the world.
The most amazing natural wonder Ive ever seen is hundreds of arena-sized icebergs calving off the glacier on the coast of Greenland, perfect view under bright sunny skies. Earlier in the flight I saw the fjords of Norway, which were disappointing -- you could 't tell from the air that they were not flat.
I saw the thread title and was about to post about having the same experience, but you beat me to it. In the opening post, no less!
Yeah, I'm a sucker for the window seat on flights. I think I have an unhealthy interest in looking at cities from above and trying to figure it all out. I also do a fair bit of rock climbing, so when I'm flying over a mountain range I try to spot the routes. I also enjoy seeing other planes and observing the interesting dynamics of relative motion in action. Einstein would have loved the window seat! Flying over water is also nice. It is fun and interesting to spot boats when you're waaayy out over the Pacific. Still on my tick list is to take one of the so-called "Polar Routes" that go up and over one for he poles instead of around the Earth. Certain NYC to Hong Kong flights for example.
As a private pilot, I've also had some interesting sights, but it's somewhat different than the commercial flights. The most interesting was flying along the California Coast near Monterrey and seeing some migrating whales. I lowered my flight elevation and followed them and washed them for quite a while.
The desert where I grew up. I never realized the vastness of it until I was above.
Isn't this in total contrast to the experience of living in a desert? I also grew up in a desert and there's no way you can't realize the vastness of it just by looking around you.
I suppose the North Pole, flying from Los Angeles to Abu Dhabi. Not that you can see much of it of course, but still a cool experience to know where you are.
The right engine on an L1011 flamed out on a flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Atlanta, Georgia. We made an emergency landing in Miami.
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