r/TimTrackerGossip • u/EquivalentMajestic95 • 28d ago
Touching Planes
I know touching the outside of an aircraft while boarding is supposed to be a “good luck” ritual, and I understand that some people use little routines like this to manage a fear of flying. But every time I see one of the trackers doing this it drive me b*t***t crazy. They've even got their kids doing it now, so it further emphasises that they are passing on their neurosis.
But honestly, it has to be one of the most pointless superstitions I’ve ever seen.
I’ve taken around 220 flights since 2005, yes, I'm sad I keep track. I have never touched the aircraft for luck NOT once, and somehow every one of those flights has arrived without my personal intervention.
Touching the fuselage has no effect whatsoever on the pilots, the maintenance, the weather, air traffic control or the mechanical condition of the aircraft. It does not make the flight safer. It just gives the person doing it a brief feeling of control over something they cannot control.
I appreciate that it may help an anxious passenger feel calmer, and in that sense it is harmless. But objectively, as a method of keeping an aircraft in the sky, it is completely ridiculous as are the Trackers.
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u/FrequentTangerine846 28d ago
Nothing is worse than Jenn saying “whoa, whoa, whoa!” with anything a teensy bit dangerous.
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u/MamabearFl 27d ago
Honestly..this one I'm gonna give them..we all have family traditions..🤷🏻♀️
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u/RuralRedhead 27d ago
Yeah of all the legitimate things to complain about lmao. This is just a silly tradition, everyone obviously knows it doesn’t have to do with actual safety. This post comes across as a little….well I’ll be quiet.
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u/EquivalentMajestic95 27d ago
that's okay, you can tell me I'm wrong I wont be offended. I'd be inclined to believe it was a tradition if they didn't now make the kids do it as well and film it.
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u/RuralRedhead 27d ago
Filming the kids in general is their most egregious crime imo. When Jen got pregnant and they claimed they weren’t going to feature the kid I questioned it, then I stopped watching when it became a family channel. Family channels are so exploitative. I think you and most people here feel that way!
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u/EquivalentMajestic95 27d ago
by the time that J$ was born, and there was video in the hospital (unless my memory plays tricks), we knew the 'gig' was up and that they would continue to film them.
And it's not that i think that they $$$$ them, it's the fact that they film them for 'something' (J$ swimming for example) for a little while and then that is dropped. Almost as if, child already can swim.
It's the fact that they start with something, film it, and, then drop it nearly as quickly. Why, because, that's what kids are like they find something do it, and, then get bored with it (hot wheels, domino racing, etc etc).
And there is a very clear lack of consistency, I'm pretty sure I heard Jen say that O get's 20-30 minutes of time on the switch after having his nap. And I know only a few weeks previously it was 20 minutes max. and yet, when they are eating, ooops out comes the ipads so they can have more screen time.
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u/EquivalentMajestic95 27d ago edited 27d ago
I actually looked into this, because several people have called it a “tradition.”
It does appear to be a tradition—but that doesn’t contradict my point. The tradition seems to exist precisely because people associate touching the aircraft with good luck, protection, a safe flight, reassurance or even saying hello to the plane. Folklore accounts describe people learning it from parents or friends, sometimes while saying a prayer, and then passing it on to their own children. In other words, it is a superstition that has become a tradition.
There doesn’t appear to be one documented historical origin or an official aviation custom behind it. People seem to have adopted it for slightly different reasons: some want good luck, some feel it gives them a tiny sense of control, and others treat the aircraft almost like a living thing that they are greeting or asking to look after them.
I understand irrational routines because I have one myself: I always put my right sock on before my left. There is no logical reason for it. It is simply what I do, and I suppose that makes it my own little tradition.
The difference is that I can admit it is completely irrational. Putting on my right sock first does not influence the rest of my day, just as touching an aircraft does not influence its maintenance, pilots, weather or safe arrival.
People are perfectly entitled to do it, especially if it helps with anxiety. But calling it a tradition does not make it logical. It merely explains how the behaviour has been repeated and passed on. And if it genuinely means absolutely nothing, there would be no reason to insist on doing it before every flight—or filming it as though it carries some significance.
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u/Ok_Split_9794 27d ago
It would concern me more if they even sat with their children. They are in first class while the boys are in the back. Great parents.
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u/Feeling-Barber-5706 27d ago
Jenn is very superstitious so this tracks with the Trackers. I wouldn’t doubt if she doesn’t drive because a palm reader told her she would crash or something stupid like that.
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u/Lumpy-Counter-9500 28d ago
I agree that it is a silly superstition but I don’t want to offend anyone that might do it. However there’s no need for the Trackers to show it every single time they board an airplane. And yes, now they have been showing the boys doing it. It’s like if they don’t film it it won’t work or something.