Flying High - Well, about 500 feet anyway

I haven't flown a lot in my life. A few trips up in small planes with the family just for fun and some long commercial flights while I served in the military. The small planes were by far the most fun.

I remember once when we went up in a little private plane for a spin around town. My wife and I knew there was an element of danger so we usually flew separately so one of us would survive in the event of a crash to take care of the other children. It sounds morbid but we thought of it as the practical thing to do and it took nothing from our fun.

Our daughter was not yet a teenager and she was totally fascinated by the flight. We were looking out the windows and trying to spot various landmarks. She looked out some but her biggest fascination was with the controls. She watched the pilot move the wheel around and then she watched the one in front of her respond. Once she could not help herself and reached toward the wheel. Being a well-disciplined child, she immediately pulled her hand back and looked apologetically at the pilot. He was a great guy and told her "Go ahead take the controls." And she did. It was a great thrill for her.

Once when I was much younger, I went up with my brother who was learning to fly. Back then, all you had to do was drag a can of gas to the airport and give the owner a few bucks and he would teach you to fly. My brother had had a number of lessons but had not yet soloed. The owner of the plane was going to supper and my brother was very disappointed. The owner told him "Go ahead and take it up, you can fly it, you just like to have somebody sitting behind you. Take your brother with you." And so he did. We flew around for quite a while. The landing was a little rocky. I think we tried it a few times before actually landing. I got to take the stick for a minute and do a wing dip or two. It was fun. I had a thought while we were up high enough for the trees to look like hedge bushes. "Isn't this illegal?" I asked. "Won't we get in trouble if we crash?" He replied: "If we are high enough it won't matter, If we are low enough we won't tell anyone." I thought that was pretty sound reasoning, so I forgot about the issue.

Flying

There may be sometime in the future when I have to board an airplane and go someplace but I doubt it. These people are suppose to be so smart, yet flying gets more complicated all the time. I know we can't blame airline management for terrorist but we can take exception with them for not having better security. They have the government at their beckon call and more money than you can shake a stick at so why don't they just get it right and fix the problem. It seems that the average citizen is put through the wringer while terrorist can just make themselves a walking bomb and go anyplace. Maybe I am not being fair. I do not know if I am or not.

One thing that stands in the way is the fear of racial profiling. We want to get along with all people of the world and do a pretty good job of it. So, in our effort to do so, we are careful not to offend people traveling from places where terrorist breed.

There is also the fact that when no terrorist attempts are made for a while, things just drift back to the same old way of doing business.

Doing strip searches for all to see is not the answer. What is freedom and liberty if you have none. 'You have the right to take off your clothes or let a computer see your skin or you have the right to let a strangers feel you all over.' Flying is just not worth it. There are still some people who want to keep what is private that way. There are still some people who would take offense at having a stranger feeling of their wife all over. That is plain but that is what a pat-down is. 'So ma'am, are you wearing plastic underwear for your trip today?" Really, just blow me up, you've destroyed my dignity anyway.

Well, to put aside the 'bare facts' for a moment, there might be a way to let people have some privacy and still protect them. I was thinking of redesigning the airports. The first section would take the baggage and such that will not be carried on board. The second section is the security check with private rooms for necessary stuff. Then a boarding area where people must wait without leaving the area until they board the plane. That is a simple version but it would eliminate the 'in front of the world' embarrassing part. Planes should be redesigned without greed in mind. I know they got to have certain design factors to fly but there could be some stuff put in to separate the passengers better. I just think putting a hundred people in an open area is asking for trouble. Why not make seating compartments like the old train cars where each riding area could be reinforced.

These are just off the cuff ideas. My main point is that airports and planes will have to be redesigned to handle this terrorist threat. It cannot be just such things as 'don't bring your shampoo aboard.'

People may have to just find another way to get there or evaluate if they even need to go. In the day of technology that we live in, many trips could be eliminate if folks would use the flying money to improve other ways of communicating. The reduction in flying traffic would give the airports more time to concentrate on their jobs.