I’ve recently realized that there is no time, not a single moment, day or night that I can’t find at least one plane in the sky. Living in greater LA, this isn’t suprising, but they’re so omnipresent, they’re practically invisible.
Is there any place in the continental USA where a plane passing over is a rare thing? Do any of you live somewhere that it wouldn’t be strange for someone to say, “Hey, look! There’s a plane”, “Well, I’ll be…”?
I’m leaving on a road trip for British Columbia, tomorrow, and this is the kind of stupid question I’m gonna asked the gas station attendents in places like Weeds, CA and Forks, WA.
My brother lived in rural New Mexico until recently. In the boonies, but you could see other ranch houses. But the sky overhead was filled with all kinds of air traffic - during the middle of the day there would be a dozen contrails visible at any time. I thought it must have coincedentally been some kind of airways intersection. Plenty of stuff in the air at night, as well, both high and low.
When I was a kid my Dad and I went camping many times in the Wilderness Area in the Uinta Mountains and I do remember noting then that there were no planes to be seen. That was quite a while ago.
I live about a mile from Dallas/Ft. Worth airport, and there are times in the evening when I can see the lights of up to 20 planes in the sky. I’m amazed at just how many planes are in the sky at any given time.
Tucson, AZ’s good for planes in the sky. I was visiting relatives there a couple of years ago, and there’s always several planes zipping around…there’s a bigass military airbase right next to Tucson though, so that’s not really surprising. Might be the same reason there’s so much stuff in the sky over beatle’s brother’s house.
Interesting. It was just last night when I looked up and saw a plane, and I said to myself, “No one can see the stars any more, but we still have lights in the sky at night. And these ones move!”
GuanoLad: Wow, you guys need to travel! I get excited when there’s a helicopter passing overhead.
I saw a plane today. First one I’d seen in the sky for two weeks.
I work near the Pentagon, and there are convoys of helicopters flying back and forth around here.
Until a few years ago, you could walk (or ride a bike as I did) on the sidewalk along the west side of the Pentagon, right by their heliport. On the side of the control “tower” is a poster-size metal sign with the Washington area military logo and the words “Pentagon Heliport” (or something like that). The little mischeivious teenager in me thought, “That’d be a cool sign to steal.” Fortunately, my adult side realized I’d have dozens of guns trained on me the second I tried to get it.
I looked in the mirror today/My eyes just didn’t seem so bright
I’ve lost a few more hairs/I think I’m going bald - Rush
My 85 year old grandmother likes to tell of the first time she ever saw an airplane. As it flew over the farmhouse, she ran and hid in the barn - absolutely convinced that the Lord had returned!
I’m pretty sure she was wrong.
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
The Superman shtick dates back to the early 40’s radio show, when it still was somewhat exciting to see an airplane. It was still a little exciting in the 50’s in Maine, and may still be, for all I know. (Maine is neither a big destination nor on the way to one.)
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
John W:
Maine gets plenty of flyovers now, as many transatlantic flights pass over. Bangor International is a refueling point and a place many carriers stop at to kick unruly passengers off.
North-south flights to and from the Province of Quebec fly over the state and parallel the east coast.
Every year I go camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). It is a forest on the Minnesota / Canada border north of Duluth.
All motors are banned. You must use canoes and haul in your equipment by hand. I was amazed how there was not any engine noise at all. No planes, cars, boats, etc.
I believe that it is illegal for any plane to fly over this area.
“It’s like banging your head against a wall because it feels so good when you stop.”
I used to live in southern Illinois. I can’t say what it’s like in the last few years, but I suspect it’s not changed much. Commercial aircraft were pretty rare, but you did see the occasional crop duster or light aircraft. I suspect there are a lot of places like this in the US. Most airplanes travel in fairly straight lines between airports creating a virtual web of flight paths. However, there are a number of gaps of various sizes in the web. If the gap is sizable enough, you might not see a plane for months…
This reminds me of a memorable event in my life. I was working as a welder in Austin Texas (paying for my education). One day, I was welding and I had my welding hood down. I was nearly finished with a weld, when I felt a sudden coolness on my back and sensed that it had grown suddenly darker. Figuring that a passing cloud was probably blocking the sun, I finished my weld. Then I stopped and looked up at the cloud… It was no cloud!!! I was looking at this massive silver-grey object floating quietly over my head. It was huge. It was alien. It was surely some kind of mothership. It made my heart pound. It made me nearly wet my pants. It… it… well, it was, of course, just the Goodyear blimp that happened to be in town to film a UT football game. It was flying low and I was in between two buildings that obscured my view of the horizon, so I hadn’t noticed it’s approach.
I’m in the middle of English countryside and not on any commercial flight paths. However there are two Royal Air Force bases nearby, so you can sometimes see planes flying faster in mph than they are feet above the ground.
Why doesn’t the sun come out at night when the light would be more useful? (Pratchett)
Fleetwood: Bangor International is a refueling point and a place many carriers stop at to kick unruly passengers off.
Here’s a funny airline story from Bangor, ME: a German man had always wanted to see San Francisco. He finally saved enough for a trip there. His plane had a stopover in Bangor; it’s the closest international airport to Europe. He gets off the plane, thinking his flight is finished. He spent 3 days in Bangor before he finally figured out that he wasn’t in SF. (Couldn’t find the Golden Gate Bridge, I guess.)
When the citizens heard his tale, they welcomed him, gave him the keys to the city, etc.
I don’t recall if he ever made it to SF, though.
I looked in the mirror today/My eyes just didn’t seem so bright
I’ve lost a few more hairs/I think I’m going bald - Rush
Actually, handy, there are huge numbers of aircraft over the Arctic. I used to live up there – all the Europe-West Coast and East Coast-Asia direct flights pass over the Arctic. There’s also a lot of military traffic.
