Around The World in 80 Friends...

 '1972. Monarch Airline's Boeing 720B en route to Pula (in then Yugoslavia) from Luton Airport, England. Delayed so late into the night, we saw dawn on landing.' - Nigel & Virginia Vivian.

 'October 2002. Flying over Mount Pinatubo. This is the volcano that erupted in 1991 and hastened the US military departure from the Philippines.' -Tim Layman.

 'July 2012. Grainy Manhattan sunset. Stonking hot day, 38 degrees C. Landed 8 hours later in Manchester to torrential rain. Classic.' -Shaun Lowthian.

 'February 2010. Calgary Alberta, Canada. I left a balmy, humid summers day in Aukland, New Zealand and got home to -35 degrees C.' - Jessica Fremont.

 'Summer 2012. The London Olympic Stadium taken from a Virgin Atlantic plane coming back from Chicago during the olympics.' - Lloydie James Lloyd.

 'November 2013. Approach to Dublin from London. Liz Peters and I were our way to Ireland's first Improv Festival to perform and teach with the Maydays. It was an absolute blast.' - Me.

'March 2014. JFK, New York. Delta plane bound for London. Never have I boarded a plane so reluctantly.' - Me.

 'April 2013. Ryanair. To Dublin!' - Katy Schutte.

'2013. Flying from San Francisco to San Diego. My first American tour. What sky!' - Adam Hayes

'December 2013. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Onwards to Vietnam! Honeymoon odometer at 10, 086 miles by this point.' - Lewis Harrison-Barker

'June 2012. Gatwick to Antalya, Turkey. This is the south coast of England, the channel and a bit of France I think.' - Jason Guy.

'July 2014, Charles De Gualle airport. It was 5am, I was juggling a hangover with a pulled ham-string from winning an egg and spoon race...' - Jules Munns.

'October 2014. Salt Lake at sunset. Is it silly that I arrived in Salt Lake City four days after watching Book of Mormon?' - Rachel Lyons.

'25 May, 2014. Flying from Las Vegas to Philadelphia. Found out that Raspberry Lemon Drop cocktails are the most delicious drinks.' - Claire Kielczewska.

'October 2014. Amsterdam to London.' - Sarah Fletcher.

'October 2014. For your collection. Flying home from Lanzarote. You can just about see the shore line in the sun's refection.' - Anand Rao

'November 2014. Barcelona to Gatwick after Big If Improv festival. I got the time completely wrong - the flight was leaving an hour later than I thought. So I managed to catch a few Z's in the duty free area, bought a dirty McDonalds and read a few chapters of my book.' - Jason Blackwater.

'November 2014. Dublin to London. I had a very decadent morning - a mulled rum before midday! I was walking through the Christmas market in Dublin and I realised if I didn't want to buy mulled drinks and sausages for all my presents then I shouldn't be in a Christmas market as that's all they sell. But they feel cuddly and festive. I heart Christmas!' - Liz Peters.

'March 2015. En route to Latvia from London. Reading an amazing book which explains air through describing scientific breakthroughs. Really nicely written.' - Sarah Fletcher.

'February 2015. London to Dublin. I discovered the power of the neck pillows and read about the third Everest expedition.' - Jules Munns.

'Earlier this year. Landing in South Carolina to meet my Grandfather for the first time. I made a muppet version of him.' - Emma Frankland.

'April 2015. Flying from London to Vietnam. My suitcase got lost in transit in Abu Dhabi when we switched planes. It was half full of things for my sister and niece. When I arrived in Vietnam I had to wear my sister's clothes and hope for it's safe arrival!' - Henri Roe.

'March 2015. Flying from San Jose to Anaheim, California. I was en route to hang out with improv buddies in Orange County. It was possibly the worst flight of my life. Horrendous turbulence. Aborted landing. People screaming, crying and praying... and I elbowed the passenger next to me, lol!' - Neil Curran.

'May 2015. We flew from London to Barcelona to escape the election results in the UK. And we saw a man dressed as an inflatable penis.' - Do Not Adjust Your Stage gang.

'April 2015. I took this on the way to visit my niece in Atlanta. It's looking south on the lower half of Manhattan with the glaring abomination called Times Square being prominent. Brooklyn on the left and New Jersey is on the right.' - Tim Layman.

'June 2015. About to take off for Chicago. We are double yolk eggs for breakfast at 5.45am.' - Katy & Tony

'Granada 2015. Our land lady in Granada told us that the clouds were actually secret military anti-gravity devices...' - Emma Frankland.

One Star Fits All

North Korea's airline Koryo is the only one star international carrier in existence.

(Pic cred: Joseph Ferris III)

However, it hasn't had accident since the mid 80s (well, that we know of) so I'm guessing the lack of stars is more a commentary on it's eccentricity over anything else. For example the in-flight 'entertainment' is propaganda soaked to the max, marching music plays on take-off and those who've sampled the food could call it curious at best. And of course the fact that it's run by a repressive country with a deplorable human rights record (which is likely why, although it flies to six foreign countries, it's banned from landing anywhere in the European Union.)

Another of it's quirks is that most of the fleet are old Russian made Antonov's, Tupolevs, or Ilyushins; lumbering metal monsters with interiors that have more in common with formica laminated caravanning in the 70s than the gloss and functionality of aviation today. From a purely geek-bag point of view I just love a plane that's essentially an archaic rust-bucket. And for that reason my favourite is the Il-62. Described by one blogger as a cold-war passenger jet, it comes complete with bakelite window shades, overhead baggage racks that don't close and 'climbs like a fighter jet.' (Apparently the descents are equally 'military' - grab a hold of your propaganda branded vom-bag, quick.)

(Photo cred: Joseph Ferris III, americaninnorthkorea.com)

Some of the fleet are newer however, thanks to maestro of hair-dont's Kim Jong Un and his penchant for flying. His dad wasn't keen, but now they've got someone from the royal collective to endorse the national carrier, more attention is being paid to making it look a little less like an act of relic preservation.

But who flies? Given that most people are struggling when it comes to essential human needs and rights like food, nutrition and ahem, freedom, it's unsurprising to find it's mostly military officials and the government elite.

Here's a couple of weird things to expect on a Koryo flight:
- Air floss! The potential of misty cabin condensation as the air con struggles to exist.
- Revolutionary marching band music on take-off
- Propaganda heavy in-flight 'films' (don't expect plot).
- Propaganda heavy reading material: Pyongyang Times or a propaganda mag.
- Noisy engines if it's an old Sovio-plane. According to avio-blogger Bernie Leighton (a man who will go 'anywhere on anything' - amazing) the mechanics of the Il-62 engines means on taxi and takeoff, the volume goes nuts - at a super high frequency. It's normal. But also weird.

(Il-62 engine motto: scream if you want to go faster)

Some of the more amusing nuggets of passenger reviews and comments on air travel rating site Skytrax, go like this:

'Helpful friendly staff! But the cabin was full of fog.'
'BOTH pilots came to say hello to the dignitaries with me...'
'The lavs are impeccable.'
'There was a demonstration of the use of life jackets. At night.'
'They showed a North Korean concert on a loop.'
'The flight attendant held the wall on take-off.'
'Wonderfully nostalgic. Dry ice and folk music in the cabin. Plus the Thai football team!'

(Photo cred: Bernie Leighton)

Weirdest of all, Air Koryo is on Twitter. But given their last 'update' was in 2012, don't expect a flurry of fancy gifs or pithy puns any time soon. But I'm following them, so I'll keep you posted...

Taking the plane out for a stroll

Minimum velocity take offs are legit tests as part of certification processes for planes. Because the plane goes slow, the nose up has to be higher and therefore the tail can scrape the runway.

But isn't it nice to know your air-dog (the giant A380 in this clip) can lumber into the air at such a low pace?

If you're up for some fancy aeronautical engineering factoids on takeoff speeds, take a look at this: Aerospaceweb

Bon soir, plane spotters...