Comments on: Airline cheers and jeers

By: david

david — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 12:11:11 +0000

John: Where we disagree, I think, is where the tradeoff between harassing people and reassuring them should fall. For example, we’re quite happy to let people get on a train, bus, or subway without any searching at all, despite the bomb attacks in London, Madrid, and India. I think that the main problem is that the general public is very nervous about flying, so they overestimate the risks — harassing them more before boarding is a way of reassuring them. They don’t need the same reassurance for the train, even though it is just as likely a terrorist target (much more likely since 2002).

If you don’t believe that it’s a tradeoff, consider how much explosive someone could carry in a body cavity (much much more than a tube of toothpaste), yet passengers are not generally cavity searched.

By: John Taylor

John Taylor — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 02:13:05 +0000

Cheers for your blog! I discovered it while searching Google for opinions on the power-pitch-airspeed issue. I was trained the right way… watch your airspeed, that’s what counts most… adjust pitch to get to the REQUIRED airspeed and use power for altitude. It works for my Archer. It also works just as well here on Long Island, in NY Class B, as it does up north in your fair but colder land. Enjoyed your article about that subject and heartily agree with you on every point.

Jeers for your annoyance on taking your shoes off. Did you not hear about the would-be shoe bomber? For me safety is never inconvenient. I bet if taking your shoes off, or following any other gate-security measure, was part of your own pre-flight checklist, you’d do it willingly. Or do you just fire up the Warrior and take off? No walk-around, no run-up, instrument check? Are they inconvenient? Am i right?

All in all, many more cheers than jeers for your blog… just stick to the flying and stay away from the politics – one can never win since there are always too many sides.

By: Frank Ch. Eigler

Frank Ch. Eigler — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:35:41 +0000

> We have no one but ourselves to blame

Well actually, you can blame those maniacs who have attempted or
actually blew up airplanes using methods now being screened for.