I went to Madrid last year and hopped on a DAL 767 departing Atlanta.

My experience flying TO Madrid was great. I thought "wow, this is the smoothest ride!". The flight was during the night.

But on the way back, I have to say, I was unnerved a bit. We went through several patches of what felt like pretty tough (or what you would call moderate chop). The folks sitting around me were pretty scared and probably thought it was a very rough ride. Of course, the flight back was during the day time.

Is this the case in your experience? The ride back to America seemed to have been so much more bumpy and actually, for some, pretty hard.

I am not a pilot but really appreciate the profession. And being fairly inexperienced (only ten hours on a Cessna 152), I just wondered how much punishment the 767 could take.

Of course I thanked the pilots on the way out and made a comment to them "kind of bumpy, huh?". I was surprised when they said "I'm sorry about that, yes, it was a bit choppy". I was surprised first because they apologized, and second, because they seemed like it was nothing!

My favorite planes are the 757 and of course the 767, but appreciate all kinds.