Oh dear!...
Mixed memories... 1982 through 1984 four flights/week.
The bad:
JFK to Japan via Hawaii via JAL... Flew over the ocean for three hours until the pilot announced we were returning because the landing gear didn't deploy. Dumping fuel over the Atlantic. False alarm, but who knew?
Private 6 passenger from Keene NH to Bangor Me. St. Elmo's fire on wings.
Boise ID - lightning bolt through cockpit between pilot's feet.
Elmira NY -Steep take off between mountains. Fuel pouring off wings. Panic! Tried to warn pilot. Turns out it was water from the de-icing.
Crying kid--- threw up in my coat pocket.
Good stuff:
Claustrophobic flight DC9 3-5-3 seating. seated in middle, with 300 lb lady on right, 6 ft. sleeping man on left... Panic! Stewardess moved me to 1st class with a double martini.
Racing though Oakland airport... past checkin, past detector, past gate... banging on plane door, and being let in... you could do that in those days. Used to figure 5 minutes for check in.
Smoking... what some of us did back then...S.F to Bremerton commuter and couldn't see from back of plane to the front.
Free... meals, snacks, coffee and $1 tiny bottle cocktails.
Los Angeles to Chicago red eye, with a name that is like 'patriotic" (can't remember)... most fun ever . Attendants... a comedy team, jokes, ventriloquist, Laughed all the way, every time.
Riding co-pilot seat DC-3 as a boy scout in 1949.
Flying the Gulfstream V... our corporate jet... Cross country in glove leather seats, glass windows that went down to under our feet... flying at 300 feet over the painted desert... A week of hopping between CA,WA, TX, NY, CO, MD, MN... incredible luxury, food, and a taste of being rich.
Now?
Hope to not have to fly again. Arrive 2 hours early to check in? Never!
But... there isn't much appeal to driving to FL on Rte 75 @ 85m.p.h. and looking to the left to see a young lady, driving and talking on her cell phone....3 feet away from my car.
oops... edit to add aborted landing at O'Hare when a Cessna flew underneath us after we had committed... Cleared the trees by about 10 feet, with all engines at 100%+ power.