Taking Photos
Hi Jim and Heather,
I assume you are talking about taking photos of the outside world from inside your airplane. If so, flash is generally not your friend and you'll want a camera that will allow you to turn the flash off manually. When shooting through any window / canopy (glass, plastic ,etc.) at a distant object, you want the flash off. First of all, the flash accomplishes absolutely nothing, it can't possibly illuminate that distant object. Second, the reflection of the flash in the glass will be undesirable. So, the rule when shooting through a window is flash off.
Now, there is an important exception to the rule. If you want the foreground illuminated you can use the flash to accomplish that objective. Let's say you want a photo with the instrument panel in the foreground and the distant mountain vista in the background. The best way to get that photo is to use flash to illuminate the foreground and set the exposure for the mountains in the distance. There are a lot of other factors that come into play - exposure, depth of field, shutter speed, etc. but that's the basic idea.
Flash is also very helpful when taking a photo of a person in bright sunlight. You are using the flash to fill-in the shadows in this case. It also works well for cockpit selfies! The flash won't come on automatically in most of these situations so you'll need to set it to ON manually. Just the opposite of what you'd do the the shooting THROUGH the canopy case.
Finally, you should get a better camera. Your Polaroid i533 is an antique. It's a 5MP camera with very limited manual / program modes. The effective film speed of your camera is also sub-par when compared to modern cameras. That means your camera is far less capable in low light and high dynamic range situations than the current crop of point and shoots. Your i533 is worth about $15 on eBay today. A modest investment in a more capable point and shoot will greatly improve the quality of your photos, especially in difficult shooting situations like from / in an airplane. If you really want to improve your photos, invest in a camera with interchangeable lenses. A nice stabilized zoom lens works wonders for those aerial photos!
Have a great trip!
Randy