Perfect timing for this thread as I just flew on thr 787 for the first time yesterday.

Coincidentally, I attended the worlds premiere intro to the Dreamliner on July 8, 2007, cleverly written as 7/8/07 for some of us. 🥹😂. fifteen years ago today in Boeing in Seattle.

Will never forget tapping the fuselage and realizing, wow m it’s a boat hull.

So mixed feeling about the dimming. Flying from from the Middle East, the sun was brutal and was baking my face. But when I dimmed it to fill dim, it was very dark but I could at least look out and see the clouds and even look directly at the sun. It’s remarkably dimmer than photochromic sunglasses get. Further, with my polarized sunglasses on, it was nearly black out so they were unnecessary.

And it you felt the window, you felt the radiant heat of the sun. But it was DARK, I saw in business and had 2 huge windows and kept one fully dark and the second 5/6 dark. There’s just enough light to make our clouds and sun.

However, we had a PM arrival. I slept a good 4-5 hrs and was awake for the night landing. I went to undim and they were locked in the full dark mode. I knew we were in descent but I thought that as I got closer to the ground, maybe I’d see the wing lights or runway lights but NOPE, nada.

So when we hit the deck hard, I was shocked for a second, thinking we hit something but the applied the brakes so fast, I realized we were in the ground (water bottle became a projectile, thankfully it was closed. Another passengers phone and tablet went flying).

Honestly I’m still surprised the lights were fully dark for landing. I thought it was an FAA thing that cabin lights be dim but windows open for take off and landing? I feel like it’s similar to the seats being up and trays stowed away for landing, no? Isn’t there something sour there regarding cabin lights and windows so that our eyes are … light adapted to the ambient light in the even of an emergency upon landing?

Otherwise, body feeling wise, I do feel the air cabin pressure made for less fatigue after our 11 hour flight.