Flying

Flying is a gameplay mechanic officially added in Beta 1.8, the Adventure Update. It is the most versatile form of transportation, and can only be used in Creative mode, although third-party mods can enable flying in Survival mode. Flying makes the player move at around 10.8 meters/second (38.88 km/h), which is about 150% faster than the normal walking speed, being 4.3 meters/second. Flying decreases the Player's friction by a lot (making the player move as if he/she were on ice). If a player is flying in fluids, the player will not sink, but will still be slowed down.

Flying is not limited by any processes such as food depletion, which limits sprinting. Flying mode can be toggled by double-tapping the "jump" key and can be activated at any altitude although the higher up you are, the more lag, and it increases to a point that you must decrease height. The player can gain or lose altitude while flying by pressing the "jump" or "sneak" key, respectively. Since disabling flying mode initiates a small increase in altitude (due to the jump key also being the altitude increaser), if space above the Player is obstructed by a block (i.e. the Player runs into a block while gaining altitude), the Player will not be able to disable flying mode unless he/she lowers the altitude or moves away until there are no blocks above (touching or close to touching) the player. Flying mode is automatically disabled if the Player hits a flat surface or sneaks onto a surface while in the air, but at a very close distance to the surface. Flying increases the player's field of view by 10, and way to distinguish between flying mode and regular (non-flying mode) is to look at the Sun or Moon, which will zoom in or out during the mode change. Flying is useful because not only can the player take its victim by surprise but it can also deal critical hits if moving downwards (by pressing the "sneak" key) while attacking.

On the Pocket Edition, the player ascends/descends by sliding from the center button to the up/down button.

If the Player gets into a minecart or a bed while flying, when the player leaves the cart/bed, he/she will still be flying.

Players flying in The Void will only recieve Void damage if they are below altitude -64, allowing them to fly a short distance beneath bedrock. However, the player is unable to view their health bar in Creative mode.

Flying is usually not enabled on vanilla servers, so if the player is in Survival mode, in the air for an abnormally long time, they will be kicked.

History
Flying was added in Beta 1.8pre1, and was officially introduced in Beta 1.8.

Jeb tweeted about it, etc.

Bugs

 * When flying near unusual level surfaces (such as Redstone Repeaters), it is possible to sink 1 block into the ground.
 * The Player can activate flying mode and fly up or down while sleeping, although the player cannot move the field of view.

Trivia

 * It is possible to sprint while flying, which gives a minimal speed boost. To do so, start sprinting, and then activate flying.
 * If a player's game mode gets changed from Creative to Survival while flying, they will stop flying and will take fall damage upon landing.
 * If a player flies very close to a floor (but not on the floor), he/she will make a large amount of stepping sounds when moving, although this is very hard to do.
 * If your computer is laggy, then flying can be a problem when starting to fly and stopping.
 * If you switch from Creative to Survival ingame while flying by using mods like TMI, you will keep flying, but the second you hit the ground, you will be hurt or killed due to the accumulated fall damage