My wife is still a pretty nervous flyer and she prefers to sit immediately next to me but as I keep reminding her. I spend a minimum of 4hrs per day on the road and in that time I encounter unregistered and unroadworthy vehicles, unlicensed and reckless drivers, drink drivers, drug drivers, inexperienced drivers, pedestrians, motorcycles and cycles. I feel much safer flying.
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Thatās because itās too heavy for the plane if itās checked into the cargo bay.
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I know that statistically plane flights are less risky than driving a car, but I can completely sympathise with those that find it a bit nerve racking.
Iām a nervous passenger in general. That extends to all forms of transportation tbh. My girlfriend hasnāt driven me anywhere in years, I think my heart rate goes up a solid 30% when sitting in a car being driven by someone.
I have flown a few small aircraft recreationally (with appropriate supervision obviously), ā ā ā ā ā ā little single prop Cessnas that probably arenāt serviced correctly (as Iāve always wanted to be a pilot), but had no qualms or anxiety at all when behind the stick. People are irrational sometimes.
The bad old days landing in Hong Kong. Passenger and all baggage weighed together before take off. Obese passengers at a disadvantage.
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They were the good old days of the Kai Tak era 
Man I miss that airport and checkerboard hill even if pilots donāt
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The Fokker crash
Looks a hell of a lot like a wind shear issue and possible stall to me
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Back in August 1993 l flew frmm Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City with Vietnamese Airlines. The plane was an old Russian Tupelov, and it was the smoothest flight l have ever been on. Not only could we not tell when we had taken off, we also couldnāt tell when we had touched down. Inside the terminal was an X ray machine with a sign that said, āThis machine will damage your film.ā No maybe about it.
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I once flew on an Ilyushin Il-18 (4 engine turboprop) airline. Couldnāt tell when we took off or landed for the shear amount of noise and vibration it generated. One of those flights (fortunately it was only 1 hour in duration) that you donāt dare look out the window.
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I had a flight into Santorini once with a twin prop plane that was similar. In addition to the noise, the cockpit door couldnāt close due to the fuselage being so bent. Made for a very worrisome flight.
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Vietnam Airlines is great. Iāve flown with them to Europe and back a couple of times.
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Takeoff / Landing at Tenzing-Hillary airport was an experience, more for the anticipation than anything else.
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Concur. Very good long haul product and their short haul is the best in Vietnam by a long way with the caveat that I havenāt tried Bamboo yet but hearing plenty of great stuff about them (Currently $8 in Economy SHN-SIN)
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Probably the main reason why we have never hiked to Gokyo Lake.
There was a nasty crash there while I was hiking to Annapurna Base Camp. Bunch of folk were killed when the pilot miscalculated the approach. Not that uncommon sadly.
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Iāve done that. Including the Gokyo Lakes. It was great, but tbh I preferred the Annapurna trek. Both done with Peregrine.
The Gokyo one flying was an experience. We flew up in a small plane and landed on the uphill runway at Lukla, passing the wrecked planes as we landed. On the way back the airport was closed to aeroplanes due to fog, so we had to go in a helicopter. I have never felt so insecure in my life.
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I did the 1 into Lukla on Yeti airā¦ yep when I got my ticket I was like mmmm twin engine planeā¦
Got helicoptered out 28 days later after suffering a pulmonary Edema at 6500mā¦
Got to say it was very picturesque ride out!
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6500 metres is very high. I got to about 5300 at Gokyo Lakes. I piked on the day trip up another few hundred metres. You must have gone higher than Base Camp.
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Went up through Khumbu ice fall for 3 nights then back down
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Thereās something very āFlying Highā about picture number two.
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