I've lost count of the number of times I've glanced at the passenger next to me on final (I mostly fly cattle these days), seen the face of nervousness, recognized that we're about to stick it on hard in a medium-to-heavy cross, and said as much.

Mostly, I get a nervous grin and then, seeing that I'm not worried, they visibly relax.

People are _far_ less scared if they know what's coming, know it's normal, and know it's perfectly safe.

I know it's probably a bad idea, but I can't help wondering if some of the fear-factor would be reduced if someone in the cockpit gave a gentle commentary on the way down. I only ever flew privately, but I used to do something like this:

"We've just reached top of decent..."

"Engaging the flaps now. You'll feel the angle change as we slow down. There. All normal."

"Gear's about to come out. You'll hear some noises."

"Ok, we're looking great here, but this one might be a little firm."

"And welcome to _______! Probably a 3-minute taxi to our gate. Thanks for flying with me!"

Far better, surely, than the canned b.s. the purser spews out after landing.

I'll never forget the Northwest pilot who played his harmonica over the intercom system and sang a cute little 4-line song before we took off, and then again at top of descent. Everyone had a little chuckle and was put completely at ease.

I fully sympathise with US tourists that arrive in Europe in the early hours, get on a train with grumpy commuters and have to kill time until the hotel will let them check in. But most hotels will let you leave your bags and you can then make the most of your first day on vacation.

Look at it from the homecoming European's point of view too: although you might have to check out of your hotel in the morning and make arrangements for your luggage, you have a full day to squeeze in some last minute shopping, sightseeing or drinking. If you haven't planned to go straight into work the next day, you then arrive home with a long leisurely day ahead to re-aclimatise.

But Patrick, you didn't highlight the practical issue of take-off and landing windows when most airports are restricted in the hours they operate. That single daytime flight from Boston to London is squeezed in between Boston opening (7am?), a 7 hour flight, a 5 hour time difference, and Heathrow closing (about 10 pm), alongside all the competition for slots. Plus, the passengers feel they've been robbed of a day and won't be able to get to sleep.

I once arrived in St. Louis in the middle of a hail storm. Dark. Very gusty high winds from all directions. The pilot greased it in. As I was leaving a young handsome pilot was at the stairs, bidding the passengers farewell. I told him that I thought that it was an excellent landing. He turned to the co-pilot seat and said "he made the landing". "He" was about 50, balding and almost as fat as I was. I have never felt so comforted.

Well Patrick, regardless of whether we know if it was a good landing or who stuck it, the fact is being thanked for doing a (perceived) good job is nice. So take the compliment - pass it along to your colleague if you ought to, but be gracious - it's just good manners! (Besides, the unspoken subtext of any compliment to a pilot is, I think "thanks for being well trained and competent and sober and not buggering up the landing and killing me!")

Last week, after an uneventful, and likely easy flight (good weather, no delays etc.) to Manila, I saw one of the pilots in the concourse, I called out "Thanks for the good flight!" as he passed. He smiled, waved and said "Thanks!". It was a nice interaction. Given how horrible that air travel can be, we owe it to each other to have as many nice interactions as possible so that life is better!

There is something so profoundly un-erotic about your standard airplane bathroom, that I have no idea how people even manage to keep their performance level up, so to speak.

I guess I understand the whole "wooo mile high club" thing in theory, but I tend to think that it's only rock stars sipping Cristal on private jets that probably have actual fun with it.

And you have to feel terrible for flight attendants that encounter mating passengers. People who can't keep their hand-luggage out of the aisle are bad enough (was just on a flight where a relatively sane-looking woman was going through her possessions in the aisle, holding up the drinks cart and arguing loudly with the attendants - such class!), but people who can't keep it in their pants...? I guess the only thing worse is getting propositioned for a rendezvous in the plush confines of the aforementioned bathroom yourself, which recently happened to a flight attendant friend of mine.

As a private pilot, I look forward to your column and always find it to be both interesting and informative. Thanks.

Our flight to Frankfurt in October 2008 arrived early AM in pea-soup conditions. As I'm inclined to do, I watched to see how high we were when I first saw the ground. WOW! I never saw the fence and we touched down within a couple of seconds after the ground was visible. I presumed that we had just made a hands-off landing. Is that likely?

I like 2ndGenerationPilot's idea, but I'd think it'd violate sterile cockpit rules. Nothing to say that a flight attendant couldn't do that sort of thing, if they had time, though.

My girlfriend is a very nervous flier, and I've basically worn down her resistance by pointing out time and again that it's much more dangerous to cross Eighth Avenue on the way to work than it is to fly halfway around the world. That, and I describe the flaps, ailerons, and other aviation-geek stuff in mind-numbing detail to her as we fly, and decoded needlessly vague PAs for her.