Yeah, I dread to think how risky some of the stuff was back then. Watching the bigger aerial battles towards the end, it got me wondering how none of the pilots collided, there are so many planes cartwheeling about. Nowadays you'd more likely than not just do it all in a computer and save yourself the risk assessment (although I doubt they existed in 1969).
I'm by no means a hater of CGI, but watching the film really got me thinking about how much I appreciate and miss old-fashioned practical effects. Good or bad, they always seem to have a certain charm that I just don't get with digital, and they generally strike me as being more impressive because someone had to actually make them with their hands.