# Killing time on air flights **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412 "2006-07-14T01:34:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/41 "2006-07-14T19:14:52Z")
Ipods, Audiobooks, and lectures on tape(not literally tape, you know what I mean) have banished boredom from my life for quite some time now. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/42 "2006-07-14T19:26:14Z")
[QUOTE=BMalion] I usually dress in my Indianna Jones costume and carry an old parchment looking map of the world, then I take a bright red grease pencil and sloooowly draw a red line from my departure point on the map to my end point in real time. While doing this I LOUDLY sing the theme song, _“dah da-dah daaaa, dah dah DAH! da da dah daaaaah, dah da da daa DAH!!!..”_ The time just flies. [/QUOTE] _is ded_ 😛 Oh man, that’s one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while, and I was just reading the thread about the blogger who took the Onion seriously… But yeah, bring a book, a couple of magazines, a walkman with some music to listen to (or iPod, if that’s your thing), maybe some sort of laptop or portable DVD player. Oh, and always bring a set of headphones with you, I think most planes use the regular headphone jacks now, otherwise if you want to watch a TV show or whatever on the plane, you’ll need to buy headphones for $5. If you bring movies to watch, make sure to bring such timeless classics as Airplane, Redeye, Executive Decision, Air Force One, and Lost. It’s been said before to get a good pair of earplugs, to cut down on background noise, and there is also a special brand of them that is supposed to help with ear pressure too. Oh, and try and get the other passengers to join you in a rousing sing-along of “Woo-ooo” by the 5-6-7-8’s. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/43 "2006-07-14T19:31:26Z")
Bring the soundtrack from the _Rocky Horror Picture Show_, rummage through the overhead bins for costume nessesities and makeup, be creative. Attempt to recruit your fellow passengers into your “cast” and put on an inpromptu “performance piece”. Organize a game of shirts vs. skins nerf football/soccer/basketball. Ask the flight attendant if she would tell you _precisely_ why she/he would never give you her/his phone number. I know that I would be entertained by such behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/44 "2006-07-14T20:17:17Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio] Take your GPS reciever and set it next to the window. At least you’ll be able to see where you are, your airspeed and your ETA. [/QUOTE] A friend of mine was eager to play with his new GPS, and asked the flight attendant if it was okay for him to use it in flight, and he was told no. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/45 "2006-07-14T21:46:17Z")
The portable DVD player has saved us several times! Love it! Some airlines only have the power ports in business & first class on older planes (American, I’m looking at you…). Books, knitting, DVDs… watch the content if you’re in coach though- very easy for the folks next to you to browse. We actually turned off _Rome_ because a kid was catching a bit too much of it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/46 "2006-07-14T22:16:53Z")
[QUOTE=Siege] I’m with **Paul in Saudi**. I’ll bring along the latest _Games_ magazine and/or a crossword puzzle book. [/QUOTE] I actually prefer the Games World of Puzzles magazine - more time consuming puzzles, fewer articles. I also bring enough books to last me just in case the plane goes through a time warp like in that Twilight Zone episode. I use my lapttop sometimes, but it is reasonably big, and kind of a pain. At some airports you can rent a DVD player and movies, and turn it in when you get to the other end. (At least you could at one time.) I’d think a Hawaii flight would be a good candidate in case you don’t want to buy a DVD player. Airline movies are often free if you have the headphones - but the quality is usually awful, and the movies are the ones I wouldn’t waste time getting from Netflix anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/47 "2006-07-15T00:40:55Z")
Other games similar to Nethack and higher in complexity, but just as low in system requirements, include the fantastic [Angband](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angband_%28computer_game%29) and [Dungeon Crawl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Crawl), plus [many others](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike) available for Windows, Pocket PC and Palm OS. (One Palm OS favorite of mine is [iLarn](http://roguelike-palm.sourceforge.net/iLarn/).) ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/48 "2006-07-15T05:46:11Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] Other games similar to Nethack and higher in complexity, but just as low in system requirements, include the fantastic [Angband](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angband_%28computer_game%29) and [Dungeon Crawl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Crawl), plus [many others](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike) available for Windows, Pocket PC and Palm OS. (One Palm OS favorite of mine is [iLarn](http://roguelike-palm.sourceforge.net/iLarn/).) [/QUOTE] If you own some of the old LucasArts adventure games that used the SCUMM engine, you can set up a laptop or a palm pilot, pocketPC, etc. to play games such as Day of the Tentacle in SCUMMVM ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/49 "2006-07-15T21:18:56Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio] This is my preferred method as well. Nothing like having a pretty stewardess poking you awake at your destination and telling you get your ass off the aircraft so they can get started with the turnaround. [/QUOTE] Though this can backfire, as witness the lady who fell asleep on Air Canada’s Halifax/St. John’s flight and woke up halfway to Heathrow… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![woodstock989](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f05b48/32.png) [@woodstock989](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstock989)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2006, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412/50 "2006-07-16T01:07:08Z")
I flew from LA to Sydney a couple months ago, and after not sleeping for about 36 hrs before, I slept like a rock almost the entire flight. It wasn’t intentional, but from now on that’s my plan for any long haul flight. Sleep is gooood. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-time-on-air-flights/364412.md?page=2)