what sort of interesting things do pilots see out of their windows?

Factual Questions
41

Is [URL= “http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=&t=k&ll=53.538699,-1.346649&spn=0.001042,0.001837&t=k”]this it?

42

I’ve got a few pictures that I’ll try to post later. For now, this website usually has interesting stuff in their pics-from-the-road section.

Enjoy

43

I used to fly in my brother’s Grumman American Tiger (light single with great visibility) in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (clouds, basically) and one of the coolest things is the sense of speed when entering a lumpy undercast from above.

When you’re in cruise there’s not much sensation of speed, more of a a map-scroll feeling as the ground or undercast rolls by underneath you. But when you descend there is suddenly a great feeling of, “Hey! We really ARE going 120 mph!” You’re suddenly flying through great pillars of clouds interspersed with gaping white canyons all streaking by you. Lovely.

The other really thrilling thing to see from the front is breaking out from an overcast on an instrument approach at near minimums. You’ve been flying along for a while with the feeling that your windscreen has maybe been painted with light gray paint and suddenly, BOINK, there’s this runway just ahead of you, lights on, and you’re lined up for landing, dead on center. That’s a magical moment.

44

No point in talking about those kinds of things as pilots are all tired of the reactions and generally are to smart to do something that might jeopardize their livelihood.

Besides, unknown, unidentified and extraterrestrial are all different things… :wink:

45

I once saw another airliner, going in the reciprocal direction to mine, zoom past my left side window. Yes it can be hard to judge distances up there, but it certainly looked much closer than the 5 mile limit-in other words it’s likely both you and I had just witnessed an air traffic control “deal”.

46

Back when you could still legally fly down in the Grand Canyon.

This was a fun day.

47

You could always have a trawl through the photo search engine at airliners.net - the air-to-air and ‘window view’ categories have some corkers. The ‘most popular’ section is also good for some really nice views like [this](http://www.airliners.net/photo/United-Express-(SkyWest/Canadair-CL-600-2B19-Regional/1035200/L/) or this