I’m just curious. Pilots have those big ole’ windows all to themselves, they must see some pretty interesting stuff. What sort of things do pilots see that we might not either be able to see or usually miss from our little windows in the back? I’m thinking meteorological phenomena, especially.
Well, some pilots once saw a guy in lawnchair at about 10,000 feet somewhere in California 
Because of how the fuselage tapers forward, how much can you see directly ahead if you are on the lower level of a 747, 1st few rows? Last time I flew on one I meant to check, but forgot to.
I was on a flight from NH to Phili last year and happened to be looking out the window when the plane was struck by lightning. From my seat in a middle row it appeared to have struck the nose of the plane. I’m guessing the pilots had a much better view of the strike than I did.
I once had a birds-eye view of two teenagers having sex in the park - they never looked up, even when we circled over them. (I might add, it was an ultralight, not a big passenger airplane)
I’ve seen all sorts of odd weather effects, any of which could have been seen from passenger windows, but many passengers don’t look out, and in general pilots do have more window to look out of, and more reason to do so.
I’ve had some extremely alarmingly close views of birds (in one case, the bird was also alarmed enough to leave a line of crap on the wing). Hawks will dive at small airplanes and their spikey, taloned feet look a LOT bigger when they’re coming directly at your eyeballs.
That’s just off hand. If I recall anything else weird I’ll come back here.
Full-circle rainbows?
I couldn’t tell you about airliners, but the view from the front of a small plane is great. It’s not so much what you see, but how much. I find it a bit disorienting to look sideways out of a small window; don’t always know which direction we’re pointing, how much we’re turning, etc. Seeing enough to know what’s happening makes a big difference, to me at least.
But for weather phenomenon, I can think of two.
I once saw a circular rainbow. I’ve heard it’s not terribly unusual. It happens over an overcast cloud layer. In the center of the circle (whether you can see it or not) will be the shadow of the plane.
I once flew close to, but not through, a thunderstorm at night. The lightning was lighting up the clouds from within. I couldn’t see the actual streaks of lightning, but every few seconds some part of the clouds would flicker bright white. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.
Neither of those is limited to pilots, though. In fact, I saw the thunderstorm from the right-side window of a DC-10.
Not yet - I keep looking. I have several friends who have seen them, though.
‘Glories’. I’ve seen a bunch of them.
I saw a hawk directly in front of me as I was approaching a patch of flat ground to land (in a helicopter). It looked back, but didn’t change its course although it was flying where I wanted to. I reckoned I was flying in its home, so I did a 360 for spacing.
As for what ‘heavy’ pilots see, I imagine it’s pretty much what I’ve seen out the front of a Cessna at ten- or eleven thousand feet. Clouds (often a solid deck below), the ground, sun in the day, stars and the moon at night, glorious sunrises and sunsets, and most importantly, other aircraft.
The geese just *before *you hit them.
A glory is a separate phenomenon from a full-circle rainbow. Both are concentric bands of color centered on your shadow, but they’re produced in different ways, and a glory is much smaller than a rainbow. Neither requires being a pilot, though: I’ve seen glories out of passenger windows on planes, and they’ve also been seen by mountain climbers (in which case they’re often called brockenspectres). And I’ve never quite seen a full-circle rainbow, but I did once see a 270 degree one from my ninth-floor apartment window (though the portion over the ground was very faint), and one of about 190 or 200 degrees above and slightly within Yellowstone Canyon.
Counting the rivets in the side of a C-124 Globemaster at 8000 feet.
The side of the Grand Canyon head on from below the rim.
Power lines passing overhead.
The Green Flash as the sun dips below a distant mountain ridge.
The absolute beauty of the rabbit streaking along when you get to minimums.
The sky at night over big water with all the cockpit lights off.
The tail feathers in front you of the other T-34 that is trying to shake you and can’t.
Looking down on the NASA 747 carrying a Shuttle that makes a flyby for the little local air show.
And many more.
No cite available, but I am told that Sequim, Washington (pronounced “squim”) is the retirement mecca of choice for airline pilots because it looks so beautiful from above.
I saw the following (as a passenger) twice on transAtlantic flights (W to E)-nighttime rainbows on the left side of the plane, set against the velvet black night below. In both cases we flew near the summer equinox and there was a twilight glow visible in the far distance to the N. I don’t know if it was caused by sunlight refracting off of cirrus cloud crystals, or what, but it was pretty incredible looking.
My memorable views from a sailplane include:
- raptors such as Golden Eagles in the US and Martial Eagles in South Africa.
- Mt. Washington (NH) from 28,000’
- the Grand Canyon from 14,000’
- Zion Park from quite a bit lower
- Lower Yellowstone Falls
- Half Dome (Yosemite)
- Mt. Cook (New Zealand)
- Col d’Izoard (French Alps)
I’m aiming for Glacier Park in 2009.
Most of the things have been covered, but I come bearing pictures!
First, you don’t need to be airborne to see things. How about an extreme closeup of a United 757?
And once you are airborne there are all those gauges and things to look at.
But outside the windows you can see cool things like Chicago, an approach into La Guardia, or a sunrise over Montana.
But clouds make some of the best pictures, and unfortunately I only have a few. Two are of flying above them - one at sunrise and another in the afternoon.
I’ve seen several circular rainbows but never grabbed a picture of one. I do have a shot of a cloud casting an extremely long shadow, though.
All links go to Flickr - please let me know if they don’t work for anyone.
Concorde pilots might see an extended eclipse of the sun, the terminator being overtaken (no cite, so I’m not sure if they’d really see it from the cockpit), or the curvature of the Earth.