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Anyone else have fleeting special interests? Mine's been air traffic control.

178 replies

Megamegablahblah · 02/10/2026 00:59

I have been watching You Tube videos of interactions between Air Traffic Controllers and Pilots on repeat, some funny ones. Also sad ones. I practically feel like I have learnt how to fly a plane. Clearly I haven't!

The ones I like best are where the ATC puts the Pilots through their paces. They are so good at their jobs. They also have some amusing interactions. I also just really like, I mean love, the sound of a voice over a radio frequency.

I'm not sure but I think historical disasters could become a special interest. There's something so all encompassing about learning everything about a past event from perspectives of different people and also through the lens of technologies.

I wonder how the 'smart phone age' will be studied in future centuries, it's been a mixed bag so far 😂

OP posts:
Megamegablahblah · 21/10/2026 12:31

ScottBakula · 19/10/2026 15:24

If anyone wants a new thing to get into I recommend looking at the 100s of episodes of witnesses history on bbc sound.
Each episode is only 10 minutes long so it's enough to give you a taste of what to look into in more detail.
There are episodes on alsorts from chimps that have been taught sign language, Manchester inflatable banana , Peru secret delivery pilots, the legalisation of the pill in Japan are just a few examples

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p004t1hd?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Exactly my cup of tea thanks.

OP posts:
Airfixkitwidow · 21/10/2026 12:55

Cabin crew careers on Reddit. I know everything about applying an American airline. I have never been to America and am far too old to become a flight attendant. But I bet I could get a f2f followed by a CJO.

Laughingravy · 22/10/2026 10:36

Bjorkdidit · 18/10/2026 06:56

Ooh, thought of another one. Car MOT history and mileage for older cars (20+ YO).

You can find this out for any car by typing in the registration number on the DVLA website.

Many are fairly dull but the ones I find interesting are very low or very high mileage (a lot have consistently done 2-3000 miles a year since new so you have 25 YO car with 50/60k miles on it), others are well over 200k miles in total) or those where you can see where the car has changed hands or someone started WFH during COVID due to the reduction in annual mileage.

In a similar vein is the How Many Left website that tells you how many of a particular make and model of car are left. Easy to lose an hour or two seeing how few of once popular cars are left on Britain's roads. One of the cars my DF had are all gone.

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