iStockphoto / Bychykhin_Olexandr
Every once in a while, a new fad explodes that’s so ridiculous we can’t help but comment on it, and that’s certainly the case with the latest flying fad, which involves people flying with only their eyes glued to the GPS map in front of them.
The trend is spreading fast, with the internet giving it catchy but uncomfortable names, from “bareback” flights to “bareback” flights. The gist is that guys get on a plane with no books, nothing to watch on their phones, no Netflix or podcasts, and just stare blankly at the map screen in front of them.
The trend of “raw dog flights” spread quickly, and Kate Lindsay GQ She published an article titled “Why Men Are Going to ‘Orgies’ on Planes,” in which she caught up with the man who appears to have sparked the trend.
West, a 26-year-old London native who goes by the name WestWasHere on TikTok, has made waves multiple times with videos he claims to have spent the entire flight in silence, staring at a map screen. This is his first video. The caption reads, “Guy calculates airspeed using landmarks outside window. Trust no one.”
While the caption might lead you to believe he didn’t look at the GPS screen throughout the flight, the video, which has been viewed over 1.9 million times, shows that he was clearly looking at the screen showing his speed, flight path, and ETA.
This is really ridiculous, but for some reason it seems that more and more people are coming to the Western world to “fly live planes” and learn more about it.
“Someone sent me a direct message on Instagram saying, ‘Hey bro, teach us how to do bareback flying,'” he told GQ. slate“I have flying anxiety and find it hard to concentrate on anything on a plane — a movie, a TV show, a book, an article — because for some reason I don’t like processing new information in the air. I want to stick to what’s predictable and safe,” she told GQ magazine.
I understand the anxiety aspect, but then why not sleep? Is there also a fear of the sedatives that come with flying? A fear of the medication? Is the fear of treatment to address the underlying cause outweighed by a fear of flying that is not enough to stop you from flying?
West spent the entire 21-hour flight from London to Perth, Australia without looking at a screen or a book. Come on, that’s 21 hours of your life you’ll never get back. Admit it, you either spent 90% of it asleep or you made it all up.
It takes about 150-200 hours to learn basic Japanese. A 21 hour flight will pick you up just over 10% of that. There’s a rapid learning movement going on and Josh Kaufman’s book “The First 20 Hours: How to Master Anything, Fast” has been incredibly popular for years. His TED Talk has been viewed 39 million times!!!
I know that “rawdogging flights” is a movement that does the exact opposite of what I’m suggesting (improving yourself), but I have to say that spending hours on an airplane staring at a countdown timer to your destination is a total waste of time. Bring a notepad and write thank you notes to people who have positively influenced your life. Read a book. Listen to a podcast from a perspective you wouldn’t normally be exposed to. Do literally anything. Just sit and do nothing.
Why “Rawdogging Flights” is a hot new flight trend
West and others who spoke to GQ described “Low Dog Flight” as a challenge similar to “No Nuts November” and “Tough Mudder.”
“The idea is to see how many creature comforts participants are willing to deprive themselves of, including free snacks, drinks, and even use of the bathroom. True road-daggers don’t tolerate being pampered,” writes GQ’s Kate Lindsay. There have also been comments from men who say they don’t have the same “treat culture” as women.
From what I’ve seen, the only benefit to this flight trend is that the men who engage in it are left completely alone. Everyone around them probably thinks they’re crazy. No one wants to be associated with someone so unstable that they can’t kill time on a 21-hour flight other than staring at the back of the seat in front of them.
You know who else is going to be alone on a plane? People with headphones on, people sleeping with masks on, people reading books or just wanting to be alone.
I know it’s not a plane, but I drove 1,500 miles last weekend with just me and my dog in the car. We were on our way back from a 1,500 mile road trip from Florida to upstate New York a few weeks ago. I managed to finish listening to three great audiobooks this weekend alone (“The Lost City of Z: The Story of Amazon’s Deadly Obsession”, “The Splendid and the Vile: A Story of Churchill, Family, and Defiance during the Blitz”and “An Insignificant Woman: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II”).
Sure, I could have just sat quietly in my car, staring at the road ahead and occasionally glancing at the GPS, except that most of the drive is on I-95, where Google Maps wouldn’t be much help. But I’m not stupid, so I’m not going to do that. I spent a total of about 48 hours on the road over two weekends this month, and I used that time to learn and enrich my brain.
This flying trend, called “Rawdogging Flights,” may be portrayed as some kind of endurance challenge, but there’s something about the mere existence of endurance that requires something strenuous. It’s the lack of tension. It allows the brain to turn to mush and shut down. But it’s not even that. Because you’re on an airplane staring at the most boring screen that just counts down the miles and hours to your destination.
So, dear reader, I beg you: Read a book. Listen to a podcast. Write something interesting. Do anything other than sit and stare at a timer.
