Another gray, gloomy, dank day in the Midwest. The fifth in a row. The clouds hang low, oppressive. Mood matches weather.

To the airport....takeoff....within just a few seconds we are in the low, low clouds. Window seat but nothing to see. Mist flying by faster than it can possibly fly. I turn to my book.

Then an intense flash of light enters my window and I turn my head. The sun!! The sun!! Like Tattoo in reverse, calling out from the plane.

The glorious sun, above the cloud bank, now lying below me like a flat cottony beach. Everything seems to be moving wayyy slower now, with nothing near the window to gauge our speed. The day, and my mood, instantly become brighter.

The experience of going from below a thick sheet of clouds to above it is unmatched, and only given by flying.

This. The best part of flying is the anonymous isolation. For a few hours my phone will not chirp, my email chime will not sound, and nobody can get me. The more connected and available we are on the ground, the more precious this is.

The reverse of this then? Descent into Queenstown.

Simply looking out the window at the Rockies, Alps, sunrise, sunset, clouds, northern lights etc...My best flights are usually the ones that give me beautiful views and thats the reason I love flying. Just looking at the beautiful vastness of our planet.

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The Good Life at 38000

I love the first forty minutes or so of a long flight in First Class. Now that you’re finally airborne, you’ve adjusted your seat to a comfortable position, gratefully accepted that first glass of your favorite libation and can now begin to truly relax and unwind. As your First Class cabin crew moves unobtrusively about the cabin delivering drinks and taking meal orders, from the galley come the faint clinks of glass and cutlery as the promise of the wonderful inflight service ahead begins to be realized. Taking another sip from your drink, you gaze out the window and revel in the wonder of it all… Ah… it’s a good life, indeed.

Boarding any jumbo jet from the tarmac...taking a moment to look up at it and marvel and what an amazing piece of engineering it is.

from the window seat ... thunderstorms at night, somewhere between 9 and 90 miles away; sunrises and sunsets; the amazing diversity of scenery that simply cannot be experienced from ground level (in point of fact this is why I really enjoy long-haul turboprop flights such as SEA-BIL ... the views from 21000 feet are actually much more captivating than those from 31000 or 41000 feet)

I spent three years in Boeing Flight Test ... when it's clear and beautiful in Seattle, there's nothing better to do than to go flying ... when it's overcast and drizzling, you're above it with a view of the Cascades in 15 min and you don't even remember how grey it was back at BFI

One of my NRT stopovers solely consisted of entering the country, buying something from Lawson (a convenience store), then exiting the country.

Continuing somewhat with that theme, flying an airline of a country or region has often been my first introduction to the place, whether through its meals the garb of its flight attendants or, as with Royal Brunei for example, through its prayers.

^.

Still love my window seat even in coach. But flying with kids, they both want window seats and share the awe and wonder I've had all my life.

Feeling of anticipation of adventure.
Feeling of peace of coming home.

I love looking up when I hear a plane and wondering where they are going and who is on the plane. I imagine their excitement and wonder. It makes me smile.

Welcome to FlyerTalk and your first post!:)

Yes, its still can be an amazing feeling.. flying.

A cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder!

This is so true and amazing to be able to see all this in like one day?!

My fun was sat on the window seat and saw my apartment through the window (haven't climed up high in the air yet) right after take off.
Thinking myself that if I could yell, my husband can probably hear me.

I feel the same way. Home base is KTN. Looking down at an endless forest islands, glaciers, barges, cruise ships, frozen lakes. Fantastic.