People not familiar with airplanes are scared because they are forced

to be quiet and go along with acting normal while stuck in a tube

hurtling through the air at 600 miles an hour, and 30,000 feet above
the earth. What could go wrong?
Surprisingly, not much. These things are engineered and tested over
and over to make sure they are safe. The number of deaths now,
even from ones that crashed is incredibly low. Most people now
walk away from aircraft disasters unless they were blown up on
purpose. That is hard to do now also.
Now let's get back to the noises and a checklist so you can know
what is happening. They have an APU at the back of the plane which
is the auxiliary power unit. That baby hums along while you are
boarding the plane to keep everything up and running while the
main engines are off. In addition, most airports hook the plane up to
the ground units to pump air and electricity into the plane to save
gas and money.
When they close the door, you will hear a change and both the air
and lights will flicker as they switch from the airport system to the
aircraft system.
Then they will start each engine and you will hear the whine of the
spin-up and then the ignition as it fires up. The roar.
Now they usually have a tug push back the plane from the terminal
though some planes actually can make the exhaust go in reverse to
back the plane up. The engines get louder to do this, then quiet
down.
Now it starts to taxi (which means move) on the apron of the
airport as the tower tells them where to get in line to use the
assigned runway.

While they are taxiing, the wheels make a bump noise at each tar
strip because there isn't much of a shock absorber on airplanes.
As they taxi, the pilot and copilot take the time to actually check all
the systems and the plane making sure each one does what it is
supposed to. There are lights which let them know every single
function is alright and if anything is even a little bit off. It also might
be interesting for you to know there are 4 separate systems built in
every airliner so if one goes bad, there are three others to back it up.
So you will hear the little servo electrical motors that move the
control surfaces of the plane reassuring the pilots everything is
working the way it is supposed to.
It also might be reassuring for you to know, each of the pilots has an
exact model of the airplane they are flying as a simulator they have
to train on. While in that, the trainers turn off motors suddenly,
electrical systems, have rudders not work, have everything
imaginable go wrong and they have to land it safely or they don't
pass. Your guys passed flight safety.
So back to the taxiing. Now you are in line and next to go. The pilot
moves out to the end of the runway where if you look out you can
see a bunch of wide white stripes painted on the runway with a lot of
black skid marks. That's when they come in for a landing, the white
tells the pilot where the end is. Your pilot wants the plane to get in
the air easily so he flips a switch to make the wings almost twice as
wide as they normally are. Those are flaps which make a whirring
sound as the servos push them open. You can see them drop down if
you're sitting in back of the wing.
So now you hear the engines rev up and feel the push into your seat
from moving forward. You'll be able to tell if a wheel is a little out
of round because the bump of the tar strips mingle with the speed of
the spinning wheels as they speed up and go blump, blump, blump.

It always is a game I play to see how fast the aircraft needs to go

before it can plane into the air. When it goes fast, the air gets thick
and acts like water. Like sticking your hand out of the car window at
60 MPH. The airplane has to go at least a hundred miles an hour
before it can bite into the air. The pilot is watching a gauge which
tells him exactly what it is. When it is just the right moment, he pulls
back the control yoke and the nose wheel will spin like crazy. Then
he pulls a little farther and you will hear both wing wheels come off
the runway and spin like mad, but you won't hear that slap anymore.
Now you will hear some of those small electric motors as the wheels
are pulled up into the plane and the snap of the doors closing, first
one then the other. It will get noticeably quieter immediately.
Now another whine as the pilot doesn't need the big wing for takeoff
anymore, he will bring the flaps back into their normal place. All
that is called cleaning up the plane, so it is smooth and streamlined.
Now the engines are quieted down as they settle into gaining altitude
while ground control tells them what direction to fly, making sure no
one else is around your airplane.
Now the stewards get busy to make your flight pleasant as they can
by serving you. Settle back and sleep or enjoy a view a relative very
few in the world ever get to experience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When you land, you notice some of those noises again.
First the engines will change tone and you feel a slight change as the
plane slows down and starts to lower the nose. After a while that
may get even a little steeper while they are instructed where to get in
line up in the air.

Now the plane is going too fast so they slow it down by having some
parts on top of the wing lift up a little which make a bunch of windy
noise, you might hear some of those small electrical motors again.
The pilots align the plane with the runway and start flying towards
the end of the runway. As they get close, they want that big wing
again so they make those flaps come out from the back of the wing
and sometimes they even make a little one open on the front of the
wing to make it even larger. You can hear the wind like mad now
and if you are by a window, sometimes see the air is being squished
so much, it leaves little vapor trails which follow the airstream over
the wing.
Now there is a big noise as a bang and that is the landing gear doors
being opened again, then bigger machine noises while the wheels
are lowered into place until they lock with a click. Wind is really
roaring. The pilot has to see three green lights on his panel to know
all the wheels are where they belong and it is safe.
Now he gets the plane at just the right speed over the end of the
runway and slows the engines enough to let it touch the wheels.
They bark like dogs as the tires go from a complete stop to spinning
over a hundred miles an hour.
Next the pilots have to make sure the plane stays on the ground and
stops so they flip a switch and a bunch of panels come out of the
wings to force the plane to stay down, and they have special shields
on the engines which allow them to push air frontwards slowing the
plane even more. They are loud roars.
Now you'll notice an almost grinding noise as he steps on the brakes
just like your car. He pushes down hard to slow the plane making
that squally grindy sound and you can feel the pressure of stopping.
It usually pulses a little as he presses then lightens then presses
again.

When it is slow enough, he pulls in all those parts of the wings

needed to land safely with the whirring servos and then ground
control tells him what taxiway he is to get to the terminal with. He's
also told which gate he is supposed to pull up to.
Once he pulls up to a stop, he will shut off the engines and it will
switch to the APU, and then you'll notice the flicker when the
ground crew hooks up the service equipment to the plane. The bell
boings and you get your luggage down. Breathe.