I watch a lot of movies. Along with reading good books, movies help me escape. They help me “get away” for a few hours without having to leave my home. After all, isn’t that what a good movie is supposed to do?

So I thought I’d create a list of movies that’ll, in their own way, inspire you take chances and explore the world for yourself. ​

​One of my favorite things to do is to kick back and watch a good documentary. But when I find a documentary about the airline industry, I’m about as happy as a pig in mud.
 
If you’re interested in what life is really like at 40,000 feet in the air, you’ll love Secret Life of the Long Haul Flight. The documentary follows a Qantas flight from London to Sydney (with a stopover in Dubai) on an Airbus 380.

When you see a video from the tropical island of St. Maarten, most of the time it’s of an airplane landing. The videos (if you haven’t seen ‘em) are popular in the aviation circles. I wrote about one of the videos here.

But occasionally the wind blows inland, and the planes have to take off over the beach. And that was exactly what was happening when this video (below) was taken. This video is insanely terrifying.

The plane that’s taking off, a Fokker 70, uses basically the whole runway before lifting off the ground flying over the beach just a few feet above the heads of the onlookers. ​

Sometimes it’s almost impossible not to check a bag, like, for example, when you’re going on a long trip. I mean, that’s certainly what I do when I plan on being out of town for at least a week. It's only natural.  

But, ultimately, the less you have to check a bag, the better. Why? There are several reasons:

A low visibility landing is one of the many reasons why I have always been fascinated by flying. The fact that a pilot can take a plane from the cloud-tops to the very beginning of the runway without having to look outside is one of the marvels of flying.

This video reminded me of that:

​80 years old and she’s still crisscrossing the country like it’s still the 1960s. No, she’s not a passenger. The video below tells the story of Bette Nash, a flight attendant for American. She been on the job for nearly 60 years! That’s incredible. ​
​

I stumbled upon a pretty awesome timelapse video of a day at DFW International Airport. It can be pretty hectic there, especially considering DFW is one of the busiest airports in the world. Over 63 million people traveled through the airport last year! And a large chunk of people will, no doubt, be traveling through the airport this weekend for the Labor Day holiday.

Have you ever wondered what happens to your bag after you check it? I certainly have. How the heck does it not get lost every time? Is it tossed around a lot? I’ve also wondered what kind of ride it would be if people were allowed to get on the belt (is that weird?).

Gone are the days of dressing up to catch a flight. A suit is probably the least likely thing you’ll see in the airport these days, even with all the business travelers. But how people look is the least of our problems when flying. Flight etiquette, like the clothing choices passengers make, seems to be getting worse and worse.

Passengers aren’t the only ones that are taking notice. You can bet airlines are too. Which is probably why JetBlue recently came out with a series of flight etiquette videos. They uploaded a total of five, all of which are quite comical!

A few months back I wrote a post on the infamous mile high club, and how only 4% of Americans have admitted to being a part of it.

I’m sure part of the reason is because many are worried they’d get caught. And they’re probably right. But what if I told you there is a way to join the club without getting caught?

The cockpit in a plane is a place very few people are allowed to see in operation these days. Before 9/11 you may have been able to get permission to peek your head in and say hi to the pilots. Today, you'll probably just get laughed at. Or detained. To me, what happens behind that closed door is fascinating. You don't often get to see the pilots in action... until now!

I was perusing the inter-webs the other day and I came across three videos I really enjoyed. So, I figured I'd share them with you.

The first video explains how the autopilot works. The plane is a KLM 737 flying from Amsterdam to London.

The dash-cam footage that caught a TransAsia Airways plane right before it crashed is as horrifying as it is incredible.

The aircraft was carrying 53 passengers and five crew members. More than 30 have died. That number will likely be higher in the days to come.

This video is pretty amazing to watch. The pilot of the plane (a Cirrus SR22) apparently ran out of fuel about 250 miles off the coast of Maui and was forced to ditch in the ocean. Luckily he was able to get in contact with the U.S. Coast Guard. They found him before he even crash landed and recorded the whole thing.