I flew commercial from West Palm Beach to Kansas City MO a few months ago.
Got pulled aside for a random search, which was pretty stupid. I could have
knitted a knife with my hair and stabbed the person beside me with it. The
TSA is truly nuts, reflecting it's association with the newly formed office
of remarkably extreme paranoia (Homeland Security). They need to really
decide if a $ 450,000 Cirrus Sr-22 can do as much damage as a $ 39.00/day
Uhaul truck. I digress ...

All things considered, it took a huge amount of time messing around with TSA
nonsense, checking in and out, waiting in Atlanta for a 2.3 hour connection,
etc. I could have walked there. I feel great sorrow for today's airlines
(what's left of them). The former arrogance of large companies such as
Eastern Airlines has certainly caught up with American and Delta. They now
treat their clients as mini cash-cows. It's not pretty. I tried to get an
earlier flight that was leaving in minutes rather than the 2.3 hours and was
told to pony up cash. What a way to treat a customer. The only reason I had
to wait 2.3 hours is because of Delta's schedule that put me on the plane.

Anything under 7 or 8 hundred miles and I'll just fly myself. Better food,
much more fun, quicker when you add up all the time wasting.
Marty from Rainy Palm Beach Florida


wrote in message
...
In rec.aviation.owning wrote:
: Right. There are lots of good reasons to fly yourself, but cost isn't
: one of them. Not by a long shot.

As far as *direct* operating costs, it's usually cheaper to fly yourself
if
it's within 500nm. You know... about the same range as it's potentially
feasible to
drive...

The indirect expenses and easily ignored as the fixed expenses of the
"hobby."
Heh...

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************