Remember when flying was fun and cool?

I love flying, it's still cool.

 

Remember when Ronnie fired the air traffic controllers?

http://avstop.com/news/strike1.html

 

Worse than that was when he was governor of California, he shut down help for the mentally ill and they ended up wandering the streets. Of course he lost his own mind later. Irony, I suppose. I think he was also instrumental in firing the Greyhound bus drivers when they were trying to bargain.

 

Flying is still fun and forever will be if you are the pilot. I fly so high, when I'm stoned.

 

He started in Cali but the disease spread...

http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thomas.html

oh wait, did'nt mean to derail things. ya, flying...

 

Reagan fucked up US aviation in so many ways. Three or four years after his extreme, nearly absolute deregulation of the airlines, one afternoon I found maybe ten passengers waiting in the entire Eastern half of the Charlotte airport, while dozens waited in line to use the bathroom on the Piedmont side, and many hundreds waited to cram themselves into these cute little cattle cars:

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The Piedmont 737 more or less became the standard airplane of the Southeast. It was a big step down in comfort and service quality, which has slowly and steadily declined ever since. They were the first ones to have the seat rows so close together that the seats could only recline an inch or two. They never had free alcohol.

Unfortunately, too many of them are still wandering around San Francisco, causing problems for ordinary people every day.

Now that's some serious sexual discrimination! Tough for a guy to get a job on that crew!

 

right? i fuckin love it!

that is part of what got us "flight attendants" instead of Stews. hard to beat good ole american values in advertising

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vvLtb-5nZw"]Continental Airlines Commercial,1970s - YouTube

that's it girl, move that tail !

 

"Coffee, tea, or me?" Remember that corny line from old porn movies? :rofl:

The first time I stepped onto a Piedmont plane, I looked at the flight attendants and thought, "There's no way in hell they would ever get a job with Eastern." Is there anything worse on a flight (other than it being canceled or crashing) than being stuck within earshot of some fat, sweaty, stupid, obnoxious gay male flight attendant who wants to spend the whole flight complaining about how terrible his life is, how the airline should appreciate him more, etc. Been there, done that, more than once. I'll take a screaming baby over that bullshit.

One more thing from last night, my husband and I were talking about old times in aviation, and he reminded me of the old classic DC-9:

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He says there are a few newer versions of the same basic model still around, but I almost never encounter them. It was the narrowest of the standard jets, with only five seats in a row, and an off-center aisle. The math shifted the odds in the customer's favor. On a sold-out flight, only one person out of five got stuck with the dreaded middle seat, and only one out of five was so far from a window that they couldn't see shit. Most of the time, they only seated four people in a row. That was perfect!

That funky looking high T-tail, like on the 727, reminds me of pictures of whales poking their tails out of the water.

 

the concept was to get to ny to seattle in 4 hours. when your van can do that then planes will go the way of the dodo.

 

I guess for me, its just a matter of quality of travel, more than anything.

 

i have driven from seaside nj to venice beach and back. i know all about the comforts of driving. there are definite advantages to driving. and i have enjoyed pretty much all of them. but when i take a trip now i closely look at the time money and other advantages each driving and flying have. a perfect example is when i was going to pittsburgh 4 years ago, flying there was much to expensive for the time i was saving. (liquids and other carry on's had no effect on this trip) so i drove. but last year i took a trip to detroit and the time i would have lost in work hours from driving alone made flight an easy choice.

i guess if your retired you can more easily drive to your destinations but for me and most people we have to do what will work best around our work schedule.

 

I guess that's one advantage I have, not having to calculate around other things really, I can take my time. Plus, I love the little side trips, and roadside oddities along the way

 

The 1st time I flew, smoking was allowed.

 

Driving cross country? Smoke em if you got em

 

Legal alcohol could get you through a two hour flight.

arty:

 

When I was a teenager, it used to be a popular weekend hobby for young adults to take flying lessons in little airplanes like this:

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I knew several people who earned their basic pilot’s licenses. Some of them bought used airplanes, and some just rented them for weekends. I used to see lots of small planes flying around on weekends, when the weather was nice. I’ve ridden in a few as a passenger, and the view was absolutely spectacular! Especially at the beach. It was easy to spot dolphins, whales, and even old shipwrecks from the 1800’s, lying in shallow water.

Pictures don’t really capture what it feels like to be looking down on the world from about 1000 or 1500 feet, when you can see in all directions. It really is magical.

Eventually, the cost of flying these little ones got so high that almost everybody gave it up. These days, renting a Cessna for a weekend trip costs a lot more than buying two first-class tickets on a commercial jet that flies much faster. Also, you can run into big problems if the weather turns bad while you’re away from home. The little props are not made to handle bad weather, so you could be stuck for a long time. Or worse. (John F. Kennedy Jr.)

All through the 1960’s and ’70’s, performers of all kinds, especially musicians, used small airplanes and sometimes helicopters to travel between gigs, or just to get from a remote concert location back to a larger airport where they could catch a jet to their next destination.

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Concert tours were scheduled months in advance, long before anybody knew what the weather forecasts were going to be, so there were a lot of fatal accidents. Here are just a few victims that come to mind:

Stevie Ray Vaughan
Lynyrd Skynyrd - about half the band
Buddy Holly
Jim Croce
Glenn Miller
John Denver (not flying to or from a performance)

These days, performers use customized busses to get to/from the big airports, or they just sleep on the bus and ride all night.

To me, small prop planes seem useless for anything except for playing around, looking down on the world on a sunny afternoon.

 

The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and one of my favorites--Otis Redding, all bit the big one by hitting the ground much harder than they intended.

 

2 words and acronym; Abolish the T.S.A

People would be safe on planes, cause airline industries would pay security, (probably with guns,) and flying would be totally safe and fun again.

 

You got it spot on!!! Get rid of the gestapo, and I might actually board a plane again.

 

Nobody loves the TSA, but the security check usually takes me about five minutes. Not a big deal.

 

Dear Lord.....:banghead:.................................................



Cheers Glen.