That's it...I'm done with flying

[Gravedigger Dav]

I have not flown commercial in years. I do it like the OP

 

[Robroy]

Too early to know all the facts. But if I was a betting man, I would go with, Deliberate and intended destruction of the aircraft and passengers.

Yep. They want to know how much we'll take before it gets actually dangerous for them.

 

[Bassamatic]

Yeah - airports are a real PITA, but there are 30,000 flights a day in the USA and one accident every few years. How many deadly traffic accidents have you seen during that time, not to mention how many have occurred elsewhere? I do wish we had the great rail service that most of the rest of the world has.

 

[GregC]

I'm flying to Europe this summer. Ain't got time to take a boat there. Flying will have its usual inconveniences, but it'll be worth it to me.

 

[Stewie26]

Yeah - airports are a real PITA, but there are 30,000 flights a day in the USA and one accident every few years. How many deadly traffic accidents have you seen during that time, not to mention how many have occurred elsewhere?

Yep...the most dangerous part of flying is the drive to and from the airport.

 

[GIBrat51]

The C-141 that brought me back from Desert Storm in 1991 was the last airplane I was on, and AFAIC, it will hold that distinction forever. I've spent far too much of my life in airplanes (starting with a DC-3 in 1951), and have no desire to spend any more. There is nowhere in the world I want to go that requires I get on a plane (and anyway, I've already been there - probably more than once), and no place at all that I'd ever need to go that requires an airplane. When I feel the urge to go somewhere, my BMW R1150 GS Adventure works just fine, thank you. And, I've never been stuck next to some unwashed trailer park cretin for hours on it, either...

 

[Lobster11]

I used to fly three or four times a year, for either business or pleasure (or some combination of the two), but I haven't done so in several years now. I just find the whole experience so painful -- long lines, crowded planes with no leg room, cancellations, lost luggage, and all the other usual stuff -- that it just seems to cancel out whatever joy or benefits the trip was intended to provide. The last time I flew I spent an unbearable five hours in a terminal, because of a cancelled flight, in which the air conditioning was not working (in the summer) and the WiFi also crapped out. On top of that, the paperwork and other logistics of getting reimbursed for flights that my university would pay for have become so onerous that even a paid-for flight seems like too much work to be worthwhile.

 

[charlie monroe]

I visit at least one US city every month, often more. The experience becomes less enjoyable with each passing year.

 

[P. Aaron]

By creating delays and extra long lines, the TSA's methodology has given any terror type an easy target of hundreds of innocents cued in one place PRIOR to being screened by security. It would take even less effort now to do great harm because a sclerotic bureaucracy is too damn concerned with its own survival than completing its mission...which they have yet to even do remotely well.

Gov't work; pays the same whether they do a good job or not. (military excepted)

 

[TOOL460002]

Jetpacks and flying cars are way overdue.

 

[charlie monroe]

...flying cars are way overdue.

Pretty sure they are closer than we think.

I'm ready

 

[ubnomnar]

REALITY CHECK: You are far more likely to die towing your Airstream... than flying. But then again, you are far more likely to die every time you drive your car... than every time you take a flight.

You can do any number of internet searches to prove the simple statistics.

Over 30,000 people are killed every year in the USA in driving related accidents and no one ever raises an eyebrow.

Do you ever hear the cries... Oh... let's lower speed limits and make cars safer so fewer Americans die painful deaths as road carnage!

But, a few hundred people die in a plane crash and everyone's knee jerks?

 

[bassguppy]

I fly about 1/2 dozen times a year. Rarely is it that I wait in security more than 20-25 minutes and I fly out of SeaTac.

 

[MJ5150]

I fly about 1/2 dozen times a year. Rarely is it that I wait in security more than 20-25 minutes and I fly out of SeaTac.

Same here. The lines look long at times, but they move fast.

-Mike

 

[sissy kathy]

Two to three years ago, there were three or so crashes in the news in the span of a couple months. I remember a few TBers here swearing off flying at that time. (Meanwhile, I was booking a couple of flights for work and vacation.) I wonder if any of them stuck to their guns.

I haven't flown since the TSA started handling security and the lines, waits, and chaos got out of hand; don't plan on starting anytime soon either.

 

[guy n. cognito]

I fly at least once a month for work. It's never fun, but it's also never as bad as some here think it is....

 

[guy n. cognito]

The worst....those that stand in the TSA line for 10 minutes, but wait until they get to the scanner to empty their pockets and remove their belt...

 

[Immigrant]

Pretty sure they are closer than we think.

I'm ready

Not me, unless they're self-flying. Half of the clowns on the road can't drive decently and I can't imagine how bad it would be if they were suddenly pilots.

 

[fhm555]

I don't know what the actual flight time is to Oakland from my house, but driving (nonstop) it's about twenty seven hours depending on traffic. Dallas is a hard ten hour push on the ground from here.

Even adding a typical delay on the embarkation end of the trip, i'm betting A flight to Oakland from here, even if connecting flights are involved would be on the order of a drive to Dallas from here.

That said, since i'm semi retired and have no active social life beyond a four hour drive, i can't see myself getting on a commercial flight unless it was a make or break situation. There is also the fact i've got a private pilots license so if flying was truly nessessary for time considerations i'd just rent a plane and go.

Now that wifey is retired, she wants to fly to the northernmost airport in Washington, rent a car and drive the coast to southern California then fly home. She also wants to take a cross country train trip and an ocean liner to Ireland. I'm hoping we can modify the trans atlantic trip into a boat ride and train trip across the continent. I'm not sure how set her heart is on the pacific coast trip, but if it comes to pass i'm sure i'll be there with a smile on my face and a song in my heart as i shuffle to the pat down area.

 

[Lobster11]

The worst....those that stand in the TSA line for 10 minutes, but wait until they get to the scanner to empty their pockets and remove their belt...

Well, you have to deal with those people everywhere, not just at airports: e.g., the guy at the coffee shop who stands in line for 10 minutes without looking at the menu or giving any thought to what he's going to order until it's his turn. Grrrrrr.