I flew on Air Force Two for eight years, and now I have to take off my shoes to get on an aeroplane.
My grandmother flew only once in her life, and that was the day she and her new husband ascended into the skies of Victorian London in the wicker basket of a hot-air balloon. They were soon to emigrate to Canada, and the aerial ride was meant to be a last view of their beloved England.
I was a typical American boy. I did a lot of outdoor activities, played a lot outside with my friends, loved to go the beach, liked to hike, boating and fishing, and I flew a lot of model airplanes as well.
I flew fighters for the Navy in San Diego for three years, went and did my post-graduate education, and then I was a test pilot in Patuxent River, Maryland, for a few years. I was back in the fleet in the Navy when I was selected to come back here to NASA to become an astronaut.
The pilot looked at his cues of attitude and speed and orientation and so on and responded as he would from the same cues in an airplane, but there was no way it flew the same. The simulators had showed us that.
This is going to make me sound awful, but I was 18 when I took my first flight because the Prince of Brunei flew Mis-Teeq over to play at his birthday party! I was in business class being fed amazing food. I got over my fear pretty quickly.
My favorite movies are movies from the '70s, like 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'Dog Day Afternoon' and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' and to me, 'Hereditary' seemed like it fit in with those movies, and it was just horrifying. It seemed like it took the things that I love about movies and really fleshed out characters.
I flew to Los Angeles to interview Vinnie Jones and Piers Morgan for the BBC and spent 11 hours in economy on BA, and the leg room was fine. In business class, Virgin, BA, and Emirates are good. I've flown business class on Kingfisher, which has proper couches.
My grandfather was a Tuskegee Airman. He flew with the 100th Fighter Squadron.
After high school in 1969, I was appointed to the Air Force Academy. In '73, I studied for my postgraduate degree and became a USAF pilot in 1974. After my discharge in 1980, I became a commercial pilot and flew my first airline flight at Pacific Southwest Airlines in 1980.
