#Earth-gazing
Hi, folks–
I have just had my first good look at the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon
from an airliner at 35,000 feet. Being an amateur mineral collector, I did not
recognize all the formations and different terrains that I was looking at, but
their endless variety impressed me, leaving me with thousands of questions
(without pictures, I cannot ask them here). Someday I would like to try that
again with a geologist handy to answer some of them.
I have flown over such places before, but always it was at night, or clouded,
or I was not able to see out the window. Because I am large (6'2" and not
skinny), I have always opted for an aisle seat. A window seat has not seemed
worth much to me, as I have to contort myself like a pretzel to see much out
the window even in such a seat (why do they put the portholes so low?). This
time, I got lucky and had no one between me and the window, so I could simply
lean over to look out the window. The Grand Canyon was on my side of the plane
for a change.
This suggests to me some rules of Earth-gazing from airliners:
(1) Choose connecting points that take you over interesting terrain (2) Choose
flight times that take you over the best terrain in daylight (3) Maybe you can
find out which side of interesting features the plane will pass on, and choose
seats accordingly
I wonder what other rules would enhance one's viewing this way?
Seasons Greetings to all from sunny southern California, my native turf; I just
flew in for a visit from my job assignment in Oklahoma, with a stop in Denver.
Being a Californian, it had not occurred to me to avoid a northerly detour to
reduce my chances of a cold-weather delay – and I am glad it did not!
–Doug