A couple more experiences -
747-100 out of JFK. Cabin crew come upstairs and say they can't shut door 1-L. Caption and FO start thumbing the manual meanwhile engineer heads downstairs. A few minutes later there was a VERY loud bang followed by the FE reappearing and saying "let's go".
Then there was a 757 Newcastle in to Heathrow. Beautiful, sunny evening until we started finals. We could see the tops of Canary Wharf and the City of London. but not a lot else. We entered the fog at about 800ft and suddenly - nothing. The crew just sat there (exaggeration for effect) and allowed autoland to do its' thing. Impressive.