Gliders, sail planes, they're wonderful flying machines. It's the closest you can come to being a bird.
I love flying and kind of just fascinated with it, and to fly something like an F-22 would be a blast.
I took my first flying lesson in 1967, when I was 16. By October 1968, I had 70 hours in the air and got my pilot's license.
I love the look of planes and the idea of how a plane flies. The more I learn about it the better I feel; while I still may not like it, I have a sense of what is really happening.
When I was at NASA, I had a house on a small private airstrip that we shared between the flying community. I had a hangar in my backyard with my airplane in it so I could just fly from my home.
I have to say that flying on Air Force One sort of spoils you for coach on a regular airline.
Flying to me isn't scary, it's just incredibly boring. And I guess I have a fear of boredom, so in that regard, I'm afraid to fly.
I don't own a helicopter because I want someone to bring me places quickly. I own it because it's an incredible machine that I like to fly and learn about. I like the complexity of it.
I've always been a good flier. I love the whole experience.
If anyone wonders why the airlines are not doing well it is because flying has been made such an unpleasant and degrading experience.
It still amazes me, when I go out and fly the T-38, and I'm looking at those little, short, skinny little wings, and that thing's flying. It's just amazing to me, even now.
I've always been shocked that people that I'm actually flying with say, 'Oh, I feel safer on the plane with you.' I'm thinking, 'You must not watch the show because everybody around me gets killed.'
I decided that if I could fly for ten years before I was killed in a crash, it would be a worthwhile trade for an ordinary life time.
I'm one of those people who loves to fly.
I would actually love to fly. I think that that would be probably the most exhilarating feeling, and as close as you can get to true freedom.
I know every time I fly, I get checked twice: they stop me at security, and then, they get me again at the gate. And last time, it was so bad, they actually made me go through the machine with the luggage.
I'm a very dull passenger. I don't speak. I don't have sex. No alcohol. I don't do drugs. The thing that I like about flying is that I feel like I can really concentrate. I used to write many things, and many ideas for my movies belong to this moment where I'm not anywhere specifically in terms of time and space and geography. I am suspended, and this suspension fits me very well.
There was a show at Sesame Place where you could lay down on mat in front of a blue screen, and the monitor would show you flying with Super Grover. I must have been five years old when I did it, and I still remember it. Likely the origins of my acting bug.
I was sold on flying as soon as I had a taste for it.
I've always felt that night doesn't fall. Night rises. There are these incidences in flying where you just sit there. It's one of the best seats in the house.
For the first time I was flying by jet propulsion. No engine vibrations. No torque and no lashing sound of the propeller. Accompanied by a whistling sound, my jet shot through the air. Later when asked what it felt like, I said, "It felt as though angels were pushing".
Every once in a while, we'd ask my dad if we could get a ride in one of these planes. And, he did take us to the flying club and get us a ride in the Pushpak and a glider that the flying club had.
Flying is always an unpleasant experience. You wait an hour for every ten minutes you actually spend getting anywhere.
I'd love to fly. I think that'd be cool.
Flying, I continue to be involved with. I love flying, and I hope to keep doing it so long as I can pass my medicals and stay proficient.
