Why GA is better than airlines

Ken Ibold

Ken Ibold

Final Approach
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Ken Ibold
We all have a list of reasons, but on one of my LA -> Jax flights on Friday I got another visceral reminder of why airlines suck.

There was a guy sitting in row 3 of the Embraer regional jet (Houston to Jax leg). Halfway through the flight he stood up and started toward the rear of the airplane. He got halfway there and his path was blocked by a guy who was taking his sweet time getting back into his window seat after a trip to the loo. While our front-of-the-bus pax waited, apparently it became too much for him and he proceeded to spew over 4 rows of seated pax. Fortunately -- if anything can be considered fortunate -- the bulk of the, uh, material ended up in the aisle. At least six people had deposits on their shirts and, in one case, hair.

Up in the front, the flight attendant merrily stowed the beverages. When the afflicted pax went up for assistance, she handed them handfuls of moist towlette packages to assist in their cleanup. One woman returned from the galley with a roll of paper towels, which she used to mop the scum from her seat. Eventually, the FA did come back with a pack of stuff that neutralized the smell from the carpet.

All I could think of was: 1) Glad I was in row 23 instead of 20 and 2) LA is an awful long way from Jax by Piper Lance, but still ...
 
I submit that an airsick pax spewing on the pilot of a GA plane is worse than that.

Having said that, your sentiment is correct.
 
wsuffa said:
I submit that an airsick pax spewing on the pilot of a GA plane is worse than that.
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In theory in a GA plane one can attempt to jettison said material through the window. YMMV
 
Oh wow. Hopefully there weren't any "sympathetic pukers" on-board. :vomit:

I'll piggy back on this thread and throw an even more 'positive' spin on GA vs. Airlines:

My wife and I needed to get from Iowa to Alabama this weekend for my high school class reunion. I could:

  1. Take off Friday to drive the 15hrs to GET to Alabama and possibly be there in time to get enough sleep to enjoy Saturday's events. Followed by taking off work Monday to drive BACK to Iowa after a long weekend of 'fun'.
  2. Take off work Friday to get to DSM two hours before a flight to MSP where I could catch a flight to MEM where I could get a flight to MSL. Again, take off all day from work for travel there and travel back on Monday. Oh... And spend $XXXX for two tickets to do so. (Not to mention possibility of *See Ken's original post*)
  3. Work till lunch on Friday (less lost income), go to the airport whenever I felt like it to load the RV. 3.25 hrs later (15 minutes from MSL), call ahead on the radio and the rental car is waiting by the ramp when we arrive. Tie down, load up car, call up friends. In town early enough to partake in festivities on Friday evening. Again on Saturday. Spend Sunday with family. Depart MSL Sunday evening when WE got ready to leave - even had a discussion if we wanted to stay another day or not which we were able to do because we set our OWN schedule. Arrive back in AMW late Sunday night. Back at work Monday morning.
In case you couldn't figure out, we went with option 3. :D Saved 1.5 days worth of 'lost' income for travel. Spent a total of 7hrs round-trip travel time. In town in time to spend even more time with friends and family. No stress about when we HAD to be at the airport to catch a flight.

Sure, there are times when the airlines are the 'better' way to travel, but those times are getting to be few and far between. ;)
 
GA is far better, by far. The downside is the sheer cost for a "go anytime" machine for those of us who *have* to travel at a given time.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
I've never been on an airliner that didn't have little puke bags in the seat pockets. Guy might've spared his fellow passengers some grief.
 
steingar said:
I've never been on an airliner that didn't have little puke bags in the seat pockets. Guy might've spared his fellow passengers some grief.
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I mentioned to my seat mate that "he must've missed the briefing on the puke bags ..." and my seat mate admitted he'd always wondered why there were bags in the seat pockets.

The gene pool is pretty shallow in some places.
 
CJones said:
For some reason the line from Jim Croce: "...you don't spit into the wind..." comes to mind. ;)
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Having talked to pilots who tried to scatter ashes from the airplane, I can just imagine this!
 
gprellwitz said:
Having talked to pilots who tried to scatter ashes from the airplane, I can just imagine this!
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My bro in law once had to purge out the car window on 355. He was in the back seat and I only have one of those windows that opens up a little bit. At 60mph it was ugly enough that I do not want to think about using an airplane window.
 
Actually, I carry little puke sacs in the seat pockets in my aircraft. Fortunately, no one has ever had to use any of them.
 
CJones said:
For some reason the line from Jim Croce: "...you don't spit into the wind..." comes to mind. ;)
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What about tugging on Superman's cape, pulling the mask off the Lone Ranger, or messing around with Jim? ;)

There is ONE and only one advantage to commercial flying, and that is only for certain routes (like LAX to JFK): it does save time. The only reason it saves time, though, is because most of us don't have fast enough planes :)

Flying out of Williamsport, I think 9 times out of 10 you'd save time flying GA vs. commercial.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
What about tugging on Superman's cape, pulling the mask off the Lone Ranger, or messing around with Jim? ;)

There is ONE and only one advantage to commercial flying, and that is only for certain routes (like LAX to JFK): it does save time. The only reason it saves time, though, is because most of us don't have fast enough planes :)

Flying out of Williamsport, I think 9 times out of 10 you'd save time flying GA vs. commercial.
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Give commercial flying its due. Few of us have planes that can handle known icing. So commercial has a better completion rate, though it's obviously not 100%.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
REALLY REALLY BAD IDEA!!!!!

Trust me on this one.
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John King tells a story on himself and Martha that deals with a variant of this problem... it's on the How to Avoid Unwanted Adventure DVD. Let's just say his nice, pretty, pristine Cherokee 140 did not stay pristine after his experience.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Flying out of Williamsport, I think 9 times out of 10 you'd save time flying GA vs. commercial.
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That's because you can go anywhere you want to go from Williamsport.... as long as you want to go to Philly.
 
Puking pax is the least of my concerns... there are 1001 annoyances regarding airline "travel" (yeah, right, "travel"), and that one is way down the list.

But that's a terrific story... I'm surprised i haven't seen that yet; I spend a lot of time in cigar tubes.

Had a pax barf once when I had him aloft in a 172.. I hadn't thought of giving him a barf bag, but he did the right thing: put his chin down and it all wen inside his nice leather jacket, poor guy.
Since then , I always have a sic-sac or two (I steal 'em from airline flights... shhhhh...), and their location and use is part of the briefing for newbies.
 
My now EX didn't fair well once while landing at Atlanta. After her bag was full, she used two others. But she did hit the bag. She never was a good traveller.
Dramamine works quite well and should be used by anyone who might have issues. Maybe the airlines should have them in a kiosk next to the jetways.
 
Missa said:
That's because you can go anywhere you want to go from Williamsport.... as long as you want to go to Philly.
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Like Wichita? :rolleyes:

It seems that Philly only goes to major cities in other parts of the country. If you want to go to some less important city, you have to go through some other city. It's funny that to go to Wichita from Williamsport requires 3 separate flights, but going to London requires 2.

The commercial airlines have their place, that part is for cetain. However give me GA any day if the option is open.
 
Check out the latest episode of the Fly With Me podcast - look for it in iTunes. He's got a pretty good puking pax story on there.
 
I keep the magic bracelet in the aircraft and its worked on both of my squeemish passengers. Since one is Mrs. Steingar the bracelet has been worth much more than its asking price.
 
silver-eagle said:
Dramamine works quite well and should be used by anyone who might have issues. Maybe the airlines should have them in a kiosk next to the jetways.
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only if less than 3 oz and secured in ONE and ONLY one 1 quart zip lock bag. Not one gallon, not one pint, but ONE QUART ziplock bag. The magic one quart bag - safely containing liquids in an airport near you and saving lives daily.

I'm really hating commercial flying more every trip.
 
gkainz said:
I'm really hating commercial flying more every trip.
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Me too, brother, me too. If only my customers tended to be closer than the coasts...and if only I had and could use an instrument rating without a medical...
 
Bad stuff! I just hate to be Sardined into someplace and just watch stuff go on around me.

Does remind me of the one trip in a UH-1 (we flew with the doors off in RVN). Picked up an ossifer from the jungle that we later found out had amebic dysentery. He just couldn't hold anything. We had a rule that anyone that messed up a plane, got to clean it! He had really messed things up.

When it got to the point where he was so sick he couldn't keep cleaning, we all chipped in to help (nice fellas that we were). Only had something like that happen once, thank goodness.

Best,

Dave
 
Just so you know... the puke bags are not big enough.

Yes, I have first hand experience...

I now carry two nicely folded kitchen garbage bags in each of the back seat pockets and passengers are required to put their hands on them prior to flight.

Final approach into Lubbock Tx with an overflowing airliner puke bag...one of those moments I realized I could handle most situations in an aircraft!

Merf
 
BTDT, I went flying with a couple friends of mine right after I got my private. How we got my friend Damien (all 6'3") into the back seat of the cherokee 140 is another story. Prior to the flight I ask him is he's ever been in a small plane before, and he tells me he's NEVER been in any plane. At this point I think it wise to give hime one of the sic sacs we had. Of course this is one of those nice bumpy summer days, and about halfway up to Door county (Osh-Sue) I turn around to see how he's doing at the exact moment he is up-chucking into the barf bag. We landed in sturgeon bay dropped off our little present at the FBO, and had a great flight back.

From then on I've always carried those things, though no one since needed one.
 
profilepic1216_2.gif

Why I hate airlines.
 
gprellwitz said:
Give commercial flying its due. Few of us have planes that can handle known icing. So commercial has a better completion rate, though it's obviously not 100%.
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I dunno, I bet for every flight I've canceled for ice there's been an airline flight that canceled for some other reason...

I really need to start logging canceled flights somehow so I can keep some sort of stats on it. It doesn't happen often. :no:
 
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