Fly with a great crew. I find that flying is much more gratifying and much less boring (on long hauls) if you have a good mate in the other seat. Whether he is qualified or not, either you can talk flying or whatever else or you can actually cooperate flying the airplane as PF/PNF. Needs a bit of briefing and training.
In a former life as dispatcher I did a lot of LH flying sometimes 10 – 12 hour legs and mostly it was fun and very instructive. If I am alone, it’s not half the fun.
In GA, there are a few pilot-couples who fly their own airplanes in this way. I guess this is one of the best ways of experiencing aviation, to share it with a partner who has similar interests and capabilities and to explore the world in this manner. Alas, as another thread has indicated, such people are rare as rubies.
Fly low and look out of the window?
If you think that is boring you should try St Croix to Barbados at 7,500ft on autopilot in a PA28 – with the excitement only being switching tanks – going overhead Fort de France is the highlight.
Water all the way at least you have land and things to listen too and maybe spot a plane or two in the distance – over a flat ocean one remembers why one has a raft and also feel quite positive about the depletion of sharks.
“Audiobooks kept me sane as a child in the back of the car driving across France.”
As a small kid, traveling by train, I couldn’t understand why I was given things to keep me occupied, when all I wanted to do was look out the window. Even in the dark, I could see the edge of the track.
With a window seat the view from a transatlantic flight distracts me from the inflight movie.
Maoraigh wrote:
With a window seat the view from a transatlantic flight distracts me from the inflight movie.
I totally agree. One of the things I positively hate about LH flying on CAT these days is the tendency of everyone pulling their blinds down minutes after takeoff. For f••k’s sake, if I want to see a film I go to a cinema! It also seems to be increasingly encouraged by the hosties. I wonder if that’s some airline psycho thing going on there. Wasn’t thus always – I’ve been flying LH for decades.
Anyway, back on topic. My longest flights w/o stopping were 5 and 6 hours respectively and they were between L.A. and Colorado. No need for distraction, this is some of the most amazing scenery on the planet (Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountains). On more boring runs (like up and down the Central Valley in CA) I try to put in a stop somewhere. Have a coffee and perhaps some food, shoot the breeze with the locals and carry on. Time permitting, I plan my trips around decent cafes / restaurants on or very near airports.
Then of course you can always fly low and slow and admire the landscape. I normally tend to fly high, but had to do just that the other day due to ridiculous headwind up high. Surprise – from 1000ft AGL even the fields of the Central Valley have something interesting to look at!
So there you have it: stop often, fly low (at least occasionally) and enjoy the amazing freedom we have with our wonderful flying machines.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Fly with a great crew. I find that flying is much more gratifying and much less boring (on long hauls) if you have a good mate in the other seat.
+1
I am amazed.
Why would you ever be bored?
I get bored on commercial flights. I have done Oz enough to know.
Pilot in command of your very own magic carpet, how can you get bored? If you do, just consider for one moment what a privilige, what an amazing harmony of man and machine, what a luxury to watch the landscape whizzing by below, carve your way through another cloud, or just generally enjoy the skyscape.
Its not boring, It is amazing.
A couple of hours of this, with a 30kt headwind 
Fly low level vfr for no reason in new nice places or teach flying to new students you will not get bored, with the rest it will catch you once you are not doing much of new stuff (very objective) or have done it all (very subjective)
One of the things I positively hate about LH flying on CAT these days is the tendency of everyone pulling their blinds down minutes after takeoff. For f••k’s sake, if I want to see a film I go to a cinema! It also seems to be increasingly encouraged by the hosties. I wonder if that’s some airline psycho thing goin
it gets worse on some airliners where you even don’t have the control over the shutter anymore, but it is controlled from the FA panel. And of course, they can not control individual windows so if they decide its time to sleep, they turn the whole cabin into a windowless tunnel.
The cabin crew does what they are instructed to do by the airline. Quite a few also dislike the practice but can’t do much about it. Has to be said that also in a 330 with the same number of seats, you will maybe have 20 people who would like to and at the same time are able to look outside, while the rest is either asleep or uses their devices or the ifen. Has a lot to do also with seating layouts of sometimes 3-5-3 in cattle class, where all most folks are trying to do is not to get cramps.
But even in F and C Classes these days, seats are often constructed such that windows don’t play a large role.
