Out the window
Which side for the sunset, why the path curves, what the ground is doing down there. The flight as a view.
- Night flights: what you can see, including the northern lightsYou can see the aurora from a plane on the right route, on an active night, from the side facing the pole. Which routes, which window, and city lights.Updated Nov 7, 2026
- What am I flying over? Reading the ground from 35,000 feetCircles mean the High Plains. A mile-square grid means you're west of Ohio. How to place yourself by the shapes on the ground, route by route.Updated Nov 7, 2026
- Which side of the plane for the sunsetFlying north, sit left. Flying south, sit right. Flying west, the season decides, and on New York to Los Angeles the answer may surprise you.Updated Nov 7, 2026
- Why your flight path curves on the mapThe straightest route on a globe looks bent on a flat map. Then wind, rules and traffic pull the real flight off that line. With numbers for real routes.Updated Nov 7, 2026
- Why flying east is faster: about 40 minutes coast to coast, an hour in winterThe jet stream makes eastbound flights faster. A year of flight records shows by how much, on which routes, and why summer nearly erases it in the south.Updated Nov 7, 2026