Yeahjustme

No worries about the Qs - I'm happy to answer them. :)

1: I love the take-off and climb - it's a fascinating workflow, and there's NOTHING better on a grey and rainy day than to push through the clouds, up into the sunshine and ever-blue sky.

2: The easiest is cruise without a doubt. You just sit there, drinking coffee, answering the odd radio call and monitoring the instruments. Piece of cake. The hardest is actually taxiing on the ground in low visibility weather - you get disoriented INCREDIBLY easy.

3: Absolutely - I used to see it as being glamorous and somewhat romantic. It's neither. It's hard, cold business.

4: Turbulence is not dangerous at all. Some phenomena that CAUSE turbulence can be dangerous however - specifically cumulus nimbus clouds, super cells and microbursts. And yeah, the feeling is pretty much the same, but the crew is used to it, so we don't experience it as severely as the passengers. ...To a certain limit, obviously.

5: Not at all. If you're a fairly fit, ordinary, healthy kinda guy it wont be a problem. I've flown with captains with a BMI of 30+ - they still had their license. How - is beyond me.

6: If they are approved by the CAAs and JAA/FAA - then they are safe. The tests are immensely thorough. ...And I do mean IMMENSELY.

7: Go to a small local airfield and talk to a random pilot/flight school about getting a ride in a small aircraft on a beautiful day - you can even try controlling the plane yourself. It's fantastic. And I guarantee they'll love it. It might not remove the fear, but it will give them a very positive experience to counter the fear.

EDIT: Formatting.

None personal, but I know an ATC-guy (pretty high ranking, too) who claims to have seen (on radar) several UFOs, on several occasions, flying in formation doing about Mach 13 without any transponder codes.

That might be overstating it a bit - but it is true that the autopilot does a vast majority of the work, enabling the pilot to take a more supervisory role.

Compare it to a guy working on a computer. The computer is a tool that enables the guy to do his job better and faster, thus increasing efficiency. ...Yet he still needs to tell the computer what to do - and he needs to know what to do if the computer stops working.

Pretty much the same thing with flying a modern passenger jet.

My guess would be that about 98-98% of the time, a modern jet aircraft is flown with the autopilot engaged, with the pilots manipulating the aircraft and trajectory through the computer instead of through the yoke/side stick.

I've never experienced a bird strike - but they do happen from time to time - most airports actually have people hired to scare away birds...

I'm sure you all remember Cpt Sully and the Hudson River landing.

All modern jet aircraft are designed to be able to fly PERFECTLY SAFE with one engine being out. The problem is, most birdstrikes happen at pretty low altitudes, and while the plane can still fly, the ability to gain altitude is severely degraded. ...Meaning the dangers after a birdstrike is closely related to the surrounding geography.

That being said - a birdstrike IS a mayday situation, and very serious. However - all pilots are routinely trained to handle it, so I doubt you were and any life threatening situation.

Pretty cool story though - I wish I had one like that!

This is actually rather logical, if a bit far-fetched:

In the very unlikely event of something going wrong during the landing necessitating an evacuation immediately, the cabin attendants need to be able to see if there is any reason to limit the evacuation to only one side of the aircraft - leaking fuel, engine fire, godzilla, whatever... There might be all sorts of stuff on one side of the aircraft you wouldn't want to land in after going down the slide.