Two anecdotes from air travel in Africa in the 1990s:

1) I’m on a KLM wide-body from AMS to CAI, and as we approach the African coast the pilot comes back to Business Class and quietly asks if anyone would like to see the view from up front. Few do (go figure) but night has just fallen and there’s a spectacular view of the entire Delta: Suez on the left, Alex on the right, Cairo at the apex. Can’t see anything in the darkness except a carpet of lights from a thousand villages. Magnificent, right up there with Niagara from the right angle, or Istanbul, or Kanyakumari.

2) I’m on a South African 737 from Cape Town to Kimberly. For some reason, the routing is via Upington, at the northwest corner of the country. On the ground there, I ask the pilot which side of the plane is best for views of the Orange River. He says wait until the door closes. Sure enough, just before we roll, I’m invited up to the cockpit. Fellow passengers stare, and I get to spend the next hour sitting behind the pilots and getting splendid views not only of the Orange River but Kimberley’s Big Hole. In return I answer a couple of questions about things that have puzzled them while flying to/from TLV.

Has anybody had an experience like this (or almost like this) in the last 20 years, not counting tiny planes where the pilot is three feet in front of you?

Trust is hard to find nowadays. The closest we get today seems to be courtesy diversions, and in my experience there are damned few of them. The route has to be unusual, I suppose. Last year, while on the ground at Kwajalein, I ask one of the pilots if we'd get a good view of Ebeye, the nearby and insanely crowded atoll. He says no but asks which side I'm on. Sure enough, at takeoff he comes on the PA to explain that we’re making a diversion so folks on the right side can see Ebeye. And so we did. Damned nice of him. That was United, of course, and the plane was one of the 737s used on its island hopper to Guam. I wonder if he'd get in trouble if somebody complained.

Anybody had a comparable experience lately, preferably on the airline we all more or less love? Yes, love. Why, I wear their pajamas, though not until I get home from Australia or Hong Kong or wherever they're giving them out. I admit I'm obsessive.