Does anybody hate flying?

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I used to have a dread of flying, but it has diminished now. Two years ago when I flew to Australia, I had to coax some Valium from my doctor. He said "Take one of these twenty minutes before take-off." So what did I do? Take three before take-off and one or two every three or four hours afterward, or whenever I happened to wake up. I am amazed I even made it to Australia. I must have been on autopilot, because we stopped in Bangkok, but I barely remember getting off the plane!

i can not fly because i have no wings.

i very much like flying on aircraft. i know that i would have to be very unlucky to be in an airplane disaster. more people win lotteries than die in airline crashes.

while i know i have a small risk of dying, that risk is magnified in my mind when i realize how high up we are, and how important it is that the plane has no mechanical breakdowns during my trip.

when a car breaks down, it loses power and you have to only pull off the road and wait for assistance. when a plane "breaks down", all hell breaks loose. so i am in awe of the reliability of the engines on airplanes. they are so well manufactured that almost all of them "break down" on no occasion in their whole lives.

"almost".

when i hear a new and strange sound suddenly coming from the plane , i always become extremely focused on that sound.

i know the sound of the landing gear being retracted shortly after takeoff, and lowered shortly before touchdown (a sound which i was afraid of when i first started to fly and did not know what is meant).

i know the sound of flaps being retracted or extended also, so i am not scared of that sound anymore.

but when we are at cruising altitude (say 39,000ft) and have been at that level for a few hours, and the sound of the plane has been constant for all that time, but then it suddenly takes on a new "note" because of some emerging vibration, i get worried.
because i can not tell what the new sound and vibration is referring to, i can imagine that a bearing has failed in one of the jets, and that the sequence of compounding damage will soon "snowball" into a catastrophic event like "throwing a blade" that slices through a hydraulic control line in the fuselage, and renders the situation as "all souls on board lost".

anyway, i have heard enough strange sounds from planes now, and i do not worry about them unless i have never heard them before.

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i like flying because it is so fast. the takeoff thrust of the huge vehicle is so powerful, that it applies g-forces to my body that are similar to a "muscle car's" performance. but, unlike a muscle car, the plane keeps accelerating far beyond the "muscle car"'s top speed with the same continued force.

as we lift off at 180 mph, the ground becomes distant very quickly. within a few minutes, the cars are like tiny crystals sprinkled on the tiny roads (the glint of the sun on their windshield etd).

the angle of climb is very steep, and the engines continue to accelerate the vehicle until we reach 250 knots (275 mph).

at that point the captain pulls back on the throttle, and it feels like the engines have lost power. but is is really the fact that the plane has reached 250 knots which is the speed limit below 10,000 feet.

after we climb through 10,000 ft, gentle throttling forward is applied so as to reach a cruising speed of about 500 kts (550 mph) in domestic travel, or about 650 mph in international travel in 747's. i know that sensation.

it is amazing to think how fast i am going, and i use a wing tip as an anchor point in my view field to trace the progress of the plane on the ground. even @ 40,000 feet, you can still see grains of "glinting dust" that are trucks etc driving along roads.
to see how fast these roads are traversed by looking at a wing edge(as a still pont), i am astounded.

when ever i go on a plane, i always have a window seat (i get to the airport early and claim the best seat for me) , and i push my face against the window and watch the entire flight through the window. i never look anywhere else than out the window on a plane in clear weather.

i hate flights where there is uniform flat cloud cover that prevents me from seeing the ground.

i hate flights across the ocean where i forget what i was tracking because all water looks the same.

i hate flying at night because the interior cabin lights drown out the feeble view outside.

if my flight during a sunny clear day lasts 10 hours, then my face will be pressed against the window for all of that time.

I like looking down at the fascinating clouds and the glittering ocean as well as the ground.
I agree wth the night flying, though. I don't wanna see the lit cabin and my reflected face in the widow. I wanna see whatever is below!

Things I like about flying:
Getting lost in a good book, my art journal, a Jack Black movie (for some reason I seem to have a knack of traveling on flights with Jack Black movies), or thrashing the rest of the plane at Bejeweled (NWA/Delta).
Free meals and free JD.
Looking out of the window and seeing the icy wastes of northern Canada/the Cascades/Mt Rainier.

Things I hate about flying:
Endless waiting in line.
Paranoia about looking suspicious going through customs/immigration even though I haven't done anything wrong.
Taking off. I clutch people and shriek.
Popping ears.
Overnight flights and it's always too hot or freezing cold and never enough legroom and I cannot sleep and oh God those French kids behind me are kicking the freaking seat again and WILL YOU GUYS SHUT UP.
Tiny bathrooms and sitting there just as we go through a patch of turbulence and my stomach lurches and I worry I won't be able to turn round in time and will end up puking in my lap.
And please tell me that drip coming from the roof of the cabin is just the aircon...

Basically, I will be extremely happy when Boeing goes into the teleportation business.