Air Travel Musings (and more)

I hopped a plane to Rochester, NY this morning for another business trip. My flight was pretty much the University of Rochester express — the vast majority of passengers were students from the UofR, headed home after the Thanksgiving holiday. I had overheard a student saying this to her mom, via cell phone:

“But mom, why do I have to call when I get there. I’m not going to get lost or anything. I’ll talk to you at Christmas. Bye.”

(end call)

I guess the thought of flight delays, mishaps and all-out disasters has never occurred to this child because she steps on the airplane and everything just works. Like her cell phone, laptop, iPod and coffee maker. No thought involved … they all just work. And so this morning, my 152 traveling com padres and I had packed ourselves sardine-style into a human mail tube, hurtled down the runway at 140kia (that’s 161.3mph for you non-flying folks) and assumed that we would magically take to the sky. Flying has become that routine. It just happens.

As we were taking off, my thoughts turned to the pilots. So many people spend years and thousands of dollars progressing from student to pilot to flight instructor on the way to their dream job: airline pilot. I wondered how they could enjoy their jobs when they’ve basically been turned into glorified bus drivers. The aviation industry is doing everything it can to keep the pilots from actually flying the plane — the plane flies itself. The schedules get more crowded. Boredom and fatigue set in. It’s no wonder that some of them have a fallen asleep on the job. I sometimes wonder if todays pilots, who are allowed to do as little actual flying as possible, would be capable of what Al Haynes and Denis Fitch did at Sioux City back in 1989. Not because the pilots are incompetent — they certainly are not, but because they don’t fly anymore.

I pondered the human mail tube that I was stuffed in; those tiny tiny seats. The poor woman next to me profusely apologized every time she touched me. I’ve always thought of myself as a somewhat average person, but even I find myself constantly trying (and failing) to keep from touching the person next to me. It ain’t easy. My row-mate had placed her second bag under the seat in front of me, which was preventing me from stretching my legs out. I swear, the person who has the guts to start up an airline with fewer but wider seats that are farther from each other will make a killing. I’d pay $50 extra for guaranteed leg and elbow room.

And then the elderly lady in front of me fully reclined her seat into my knees. She later got up and asked if I would stop poking her in the back. I told her that I would love to, but that she would have to lift her seat up because I couldn’t lower my knees any farther (thanks to my neighbor’s bag). Her response was to leave it reclined for the remainder of the flight — including touch down, long after the flight attendants asked her to un-recline it. What’s wrong with some people?

But the day wasn’t all bad. It had taken a bit over an hour to get checked in and through security, but I had plenty of time to get to the gate and have a nibble for breakfast. The flight left on time and arrived early. It’s a beautiful day here in Rochester. My hotel is .1 mile from the client site that I am visiting. There’s a Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse .2 miles in the other direction. My bags came off the luggage carousel first. Avis had the keys to the rental car in my hands in under 30 seconds (love that Preferred service!). I gathered my stuff and headed out into the cold.

And this super-de-duper hotness is what I found in slot C26:

They must have forgotten that they’re renting cars in Rochester, NY. It’s supposed to snow three out of the five days I’m here. Anyway, here’s my brief review for those who care:

When you turn the key, it roars to life. When you turn the engine off, you can still hear the turbo spinning down for almost 60 seconds. Throttle is very smooth, steering is very twitchy. I could very easy collect a speed award if I don’t promise myself to stay in the right lane at all times while I’ve got it. In addition to the standard drivers seat adjustments that can be made, there is a lever that will hydrologically lift or lower the seat to accommodate your height. How cool is that?

My first thought about the rest of the interior was that it looks cheap. But as I’ve considered it further, I’ve realized that pretty much all non-luxury car interiors look cheap; because they are. So I can’t fault the car.� Like my old 1997 Mustang, the trunk is large enough to fit two dead bodies in, and it should be illegal for Ford to advertise that the car is a four-seater.� The color is unusual enough that I was able to find it in a crowded parking lot… pronto!

My review boiled down to two words: LOVE IT.

(BTW, that photo came off of a $5 digital camera that I picked up at Walmart while I was out. Why would I buy a $5 digital camera? I didn’t want to lug my camera gear up here, but didn’t want to deprive John of his smaller camera. Not great quality, but it works for little snapshots and fits in my back pocket. )

---

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically each day to your feed reader.

Nothing Noteworthy | Powered by WordPress | ElegantBlue is a custom theme by Nathan Rice