As a passenger with more miles than is good for me, I like to be as informed as possible. And now that I am a student pilot, I appreciate and understand the technical lingo sometimes used.

This is probably just me, but I’d like to hear the following:

As we are pushing back or whenever safe, give me the duration of the flight, time we arrive at destination, weather at destination, possibility of turbulence on the way.

On a clear day, tell me that it’s Mt. Rushmore on the left side or that in 5 minutes we are flying over the Great Salt Lake and those on the right side can see it. It’s ok to play tour guide and be proud possessor of geographic tidbits.

When landing at my home airport, I know what Runway 34 is, but it’s nice to know that we are making a loop or something because of the direction in which we are coming in. And if the loop involves going over Mt. Rainier, I know other passengers not from Seattle would appreciate knowing it.

Many of these factoids (sorry HSLD, I can’t get that word out of my head since you used it) are freely given by the flight attendant already, but it’s nice to hear the perspective from the flightdeck.

I also would enjoy a good joke or two. I was on American once and the captain was the funniest guy. It made my day.

Needless to say, I am one of those glued to the screen on those international flights where they show the progress of this little airplane superimposed on the world map.