NOTHING BUT AIR

I love air travel. Yeah, I know, in this modern day of the (literal!) "airbus" it has a lot of challenges. Seating room. Line queues. Security (which I have come to label "domestic customs"). 

Other passengers. Definitely other passengers.

Just this last Sunday, on a flight from DC to LAX we had three, count 'em, three aggressively entitled  passengers who really didn't care how much they took advantage and undercut other passengers, they paid their ticket and felt entitled to rule the roost.

The first was a women in her fifties who arrived at the gate in a wheelchair. Then, after the attendant had gone off to handle a truly deserving passenger, the woman stood up, grabbed her suitcase and trundled very capably off to shop or find dinner. Coming back later she betrayed no signs of an inabiity or discomfort in her walk. Just laziness.

Upon arrival, a wheelchair greeted her at the aircraft door.

The second was a man who slipped not two. Not three. Not four. But FIVE items into the overhead, taking up full suitcase room with each of them. Watching this I'd had enough and told the guy he needed to put some of that under my seat - he was seated behind me - and save some room for other passengers. He unloaded an invective which cannot be repeated here, but it had to do with minding my own business, he'd paid his fare and was entitled to the slots, etc. Finally another passenger just looked at me and said I should forget it. The man's wife was thoroughly embarrassed by his tirade, and we watched as several other passengers uselessly searched for a spot for their own luggage.

Nasty customer

 The third and final asshat was a passenger (not the one pictured above) who needed something from the overhead bin while the aircraft was parked on the tarmac waiting for our gate to open after touchdown. In complete violation of crewmember instructions, and several federal laws, she stood up and opened the overhead. The flight attendant came on the PA and said, in a generic fashion, that we were on an active taxiway and "passengers" had to sit down. The woman ignored the request,  retaking her seat only once she was done with finding what she needed - two announcements, each more specific, later. Then, apparently having gotten the wrong thing, stood up again to get into her luggage. On an open taxiway, in violation of several Federal laws. She didn't sit down again until the flight attendant, on the overhead, threatened to have her arrested.

But I continue to love air travel. It's a gateway to adventure

that can sometimes be an adventure, in and of itself.

Pic of the Day: Sunset at 30K'

Sitting here in the dark on a quiet Monday I find myself looking forward to getting back on the road and back, as the Navy says, "Under Way" with the adventure.

Pic of the Day: Not What You're Thinking....

Every once in a while I take a shot that doesn't quite turn out as expected. There was nothing wrong with this particular CRJ jet, but the photo seems to indicate differently.

Rest assured, we made it safely to our destination.

Pic of the Day: "Thank You For Flying..."

JetBlue pilots still take the time to make personal in-cabin announcements to the passengers. Wonderful touch, and sincerely appreciated.

Keeping the glamor of flight alive, even if on life support...

Looking Down from On High

"I pick the prettiest part of the sky and I melt into the wing and then into the air, till I'm just soul on a sunbeam."  ~Richard Bach






The View from Up There...

I am not a poet, and so it may be more difficult for me to effectively describe one of the most astounding methods of travel, and that is the gift of flight. To be above the world, looking down, is one of the greatest adventures ever accomplished by humanity, but in this modern world of the bus-like passenger liner we tend to forget to look out the window and see the world from a perspective only granted us only in the last hundred years.

Missing the Bigger Picture

All too often we regard flying as, at best, an inconvenience. And, to be sure, it has become such an everyday maze of ticket counters, TSA, gate checks, boarding, small seats, rude passengers and baggage claim, that it's easy to get drawn down into the miasma of inconvenience and forget the rest. As a passenger I need to deal with these little difficulties, without losing sight of the true marvel of modern air travel.

Whenever I'm given the option of whether to sit on the aisle on next to the window, I usually opt for the window. For me it's the truest sense of traveling adventure you can get on a modern airliner. Sitting in the aisle seat certainly makes for more convenience when making a bid for the head (restroom), but the view is pretty much the same as you get on the aisle in a pre-stadium seating small, crowded theater, without the big screen or filmed entertainment. More claustrophic, in fact, given the much lower ceiling,

Phoenix Int'l Airport

Mountains

(I try like the dickens to avoid being caught in that airliner Purgatory known as the "center seat", usually only suffering that ignominy when I am traveling with my lovely bride. I'll take the seat so she can have aisle or window -- she likes the window as well, most times.)

Regardless of the time of day -- daylight hours being preferable, the view out the window is usually pretty fascinating. An overcast day or long voyage over an ocean being exceptions to the rule, most of the time the view offers something far more interesting to look at beyond the seat back in front of you.

Leaving Honolulu

One of my more recent travel-related hobbies is photographing things from above. I've begun collecting airports, shorelines, mountains...or other geological features which we can't see from the ground, and are easily missed in a center or aisle seat.

Looking out the window was something I learned to love at an early age. It might also be the source of my acrophobia, but that's a supposition for another time. I recall one flight in particular, in which we were on a flight from Boston's Logan Airport to Los Angeles International. This would place it in the very late sixties, or 1970. I would have been nine, which closely matches my recollection. Assuming then, a transcontinental flight, I'd tend to think we were in a Boeing 707, the importance of which I will arrive at momentarily.

( http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141020-the-plane-that-changed-air-travel )

Crop circles over Nebraska

As noted, I like the window seat. I love looking down at the world as it passes by, seemingly just below my feet. On this one particular voyage, we were crossing over the northernmost portion of Arizona. I know this because of what happened next. The pilot came on the overhead -- remember, this was the heyday of the JetSet experience we all remember so vividly and probably incorrectly -- and let everyone know we were rapidly approaching one of the greatest views on Earth: The Grand Canyon.

Above Yosemite

This, of course, got me very excited. Right up until the point the Captain decided BOTH side of the aircraft deserved a view. Slowly the plane turned first one way, and then the other, giving the window seats on both sides of the aisle a special downward view of a vast hole in use ground. Not good if you've got a span scent fear of heights. What had been a relatively uneventful flight was seared into my memory for at this point, four plus decades.

But it never left me, that feeling of looking down. Yes, that adventure over the Grand Canyon scared the day lights out of me -- echoed decades later in a much smaller plane above the Inside Passage in Alaska -- but it also excited me at the things you could see if you simply looked down. And so, all these years later, despite the tug of nervousness that sometimes nudges its way into my consciousness, I love the window. 

My hometown of Long Beach

Looking down, looking out, you understand what it is to be moving, going somewhere, doing something exciting. 

As much as we complain that the airlines are rapidly becoming/have become little more than Trailways in the sky, from a window seat you can always sit back, lean your head against the window frame...

...and fly.

My soul is in the sky.  ~William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

DISPATCHES FROM THE ROAD: My Fellow Passengers

"Try to start a conversation at a cocktail party about how much you love your old-line carrier and see how long it takes someone to throw a canapé at you."           - Fred Reid

My fellow frequent flyer...

There are times when the dichotomy between passengers on a flight amuse me.

To my left, in the last row of the cabin, sits a little boy of perhaps seven or eight. He's already a seasoned traveler, he tells me in an enthusiastic voice, having flown, by himself, some eight times. His parents, presumably divorced, live in Long Beach and Seattle, respectively. Or at least those are the airports at either end of his journey. He's what in Hollywood they would call "precocious" on a casting call sheet, though in a sweet way. Very assured of himself, he will opine on any topic (asking what game I was playing on my iPad, he labeled Scrabble boring!) (The exclamation point was his.) He's well behaved and a rather nice young boy, though prone to trying to get attention by singing along to music on his headset a bit louder than warranted, and speaking in a tone of voice best reserved for an outdoor playground under a busy flight path. And scrambling across the seats when it comes time to visit the lavatory.

To my right, across the aisle, is a younger woman, dressed in a pink hoodie, who seems disinclined to socialize. Head down on the tray table she's giving off the strong vibe of being seriously hungover and just wishing the world would go away. Not unpleasant, just distinctly not wanting to be awake at the moment.

Next to her are two women who, from appearances, are mother and daughter. Both adult. Very nice, they are spending their time watching Food Network (we're on JetBlue) and trading comments every once in a while. Pink Hoodie couldn't care less.

In the row directly in front of me is a woman with two preteen girls, who are delighting in talking to each other and Mom. A very active conversation, without being distracting to other passengers, the two girls are clearly having an adventure. There's a little bit of voyage narration from the one next to the window, keeping her seat,ate apprised of the various spots and sights she is viewing out of the porthole. 

"I can see clouds. I am looking down on the tops of clouds."

"There's a big mountain down there. Look!"

"We're over California now!" The middle seat sounds impressed. "No, I saw it on the map on the tv screen."

And so on. The girl in the middle seat seems to be having some issues with the tv screen not being a touch-screen. Ah, youth. What would they make of the Commodore 64, I think to myself.

Pink, sleeping

Across the aisle from them is a single woman who is doing a good job of sitting back and watching HGTV while munching on pretzels and a 7Up. A dad and his son sit in the middle and window seats. Dad us focused on ESPN while the kid is tuned to the Cartoon Network.There are three attendants on board, and I get to know two of them pretty well. One is quite young and I think relatively new. I overheard her ask the more seasoned attendant if she could make an announcement. The more seasoned is a very pleasant woman with the appropriate name "Song". She and I trade a few niceties during the flight, and she clearly understands that a single male business traveler is not the best seat partner for a kid traveling solo, but we're making the best of it. The boy is really a nice kid, if enthusiastic.Okay...the kids just interrupted me..."look, look look!" I looked over in time to see a final scene from an animated tv show clearly meant for adults. Two characters, animated, partially undressed and having a good time, were rolling ardorously across the table at some sort of dinner event. The people at the primary table were doing their best to ignore it, but the kid next to me excitedly told me about how they were rolling around and almost naked. He described in a distinctly non-golf voice. Naked! Exclamation point!

The ever-popular lavatory

Okay, I'm not a parent and normally these things don't bug me, but what do you tell a kid who just watched that sort of thing? Really. I want to know!

The flight is beginning to wind down. According to the flight map we're approaching the Los Angeles metro area, though still at 35000 feet at moving at some 600 miles per hour. The flight's pretty choppy, but this doesn't prevent a handful of people from making that last-minute haj to the lavatories.

A sudden dip and change in the engines indicates we're beginning our descent into Long Beach.

Just another day at the office, I guess. Next week I'm starting an extended vacation and, as promised, you can follow along here and on Twitter. Headed to the Land Down Under...where men ..... And women......

Or so I've heard.

Ah. Seat belt light is on, and it's time to make ready for landing. Catch you on the flip side.

The Friendly Skies

High Speed Rail. The OOONLY way to Fly!

"I miss riding those fast trains in Japan... 'cause I'd never seen a train that fast in my life."
-  Ike Turner


I am often disappointed by the arguments people put forth regarding the expansion of rail service in this country. Particularly opposing High Speed Rail (HSR).

TT - Under the Channel Tunnel

As you may be aware, California has begin building what will eventually become a statewide High Speed Rail network not too dissimilar to the existing platforms in Europe and Asia. The primary backbone, of course, will run between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles metropolitan area. If done properly, it promises to revolutionize the way Californians travel in the same way HSR has revolutionized travel in Europe and, particularly, Japan. If done properly -- again that caveat -- it will create a far more efficient and yet still timely way to transit between the state's two largest urban areas and many spots between and around them.

Italy's Frecciargento

I say "if done properly" because there are still those voices who refuse (or simply don't want) to understand the benefits of such a system and are hellbent on stopping or at least modifying the plans.

Some of them are simply NIMBY. Don't want a project -- any kind of project -- let alone something with a bunch of zeroes in the price tag. They're not opposed to HSR, they're opposed to anything which costs money.

Then, there are those who are concerned it's too big, too expensive, too invasive. That it will take monies away from other projects they like better. These people, some of them driven by heartfelt, if misguided, opposition based on a misunderstanding of the economic model, or perhaps from a rejection of the systems' projected return on investment on a MACRO level, really truly want to halt the development of the train regardless of the benefits it will likely bring (based upon the success of the models in Europe and Asia).

(By Macro I mean the economic impact as a whole, not simply "it costs this much to build and this much to operate". A true cost models includes sustained earnings and economic impact on a greater scale. A great example is the money-losing CW television network. The parent companies lose a lot of money on it, however make MORE money from the programming they produce and sell to it that offsets those losses. Taken as a macro, the network pays back significant dividends to its owners despite losing money.)

Paris' Gare du Nord Station

Others have a much more insidious agenda, and these are the folks who stand to lose financially from such a system. Because trains are far more economical per passenger mile, they are a threat to the gasoline and automotive industry while thrives based upon continued gas consumption of vehicles between California's major cities. A vast network of gas stations, automotive repair, sales and maintenance exists. Airlines are fighting tooth and nail because they rather obviously have the most to lose against a competitor such as a thriving HSR service.

One of the primary arguments made against California's system haas been cost, and there's no doubt it's an expensive proposition. Somewhere between $70B-100B to build the general infrastructure. That's a lot of money under any circumstances, but particularly in difficult economic times. Of course, if the money was being carted out into the Pacific Ocean and dumped into the Monterey Deep Sea Canyon just off the coast this would be an entirely valid concern. But as you no doubt realize, the money is actually spent on wages and salaries and products right here in the Golden States and other US states. It's an economic engine just as important as building a road or bridge or other public infrastructure elsewhere.

Importantly, the rail, if done correctly, would remove enough cars from the road (and potentially aircraft from the air) to more than offset the cost of building infrastructure for those forms of transportation, each of which is commensurate to the long term cost of the rail project. (CalTrans, our state agency tasked with maintaining transit infrastructure, alone has a statewide budget of $12B in 2013, for example. This doesn't include the money spent by cities and counties on their own road maintenance.) Rail efficiencies are driven after the initial construction costs, and would be amortized over the decades of service and upgrades.

View from a HS Train

View from a jet

Another argument is environmental. Um, hello? A rail system is far more environmentally sound than thousands of cars or passenger planes. Yes, there would be some construction impact, no question. But since the majority of the rail service bypasses the state's environmental treasures (and largely follows existing roadways) the impact is far more minimal than highway expansion and continued pollution from aircraft and automobiles.

Not only is rail service efficient and effective, it is far more comfortable than the flying busses employed by the airlines. On a train you can get out of your (much larger than airline-style) seat, stretch your legs, stand and talk, walk back to the diner car for a nosh (or drink) and generally travel in a good deal of relative comfort.

Seating inside a plane

Seating inside a train

(I will note that another plan exists for a slightly slower train to Las Vegas from the LA area, but this one promises true style and comfort. And an Ultra-Lounge to boot! The X Train is set to begin service some time in 2014 with a ride that effectively begins an ultra-chic Vegas vibe for the passengers hours before the train rolls into Las Vegas. Once launched, it will be interesting to see the impact it has on both Vegas-bound traffic and general expectations for rail service elsewhere. If you want to know more, I have included a link to their website below.)

One thing I have noticed is that people are more than willing to argue things from a theoretical standpoint, or even solely based on a spreadsheet and heresay. I have benefitted from traveling extensively on the European trains -- the TGV, Thalys, Eurostar and Frecciargento in particular -- and can testify to the extreme difference in the travelers' experience between that mode of transportation and the challenges presented by air travel these days.

And lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the views from =a train. Aircraft loft usup and over some truly beautiful vistas. From 30,000 feet the ground tends to look like a patchwork quilt, at best. From a rail perspective you can truly see the land for what it is: whether mountains, farms or cities, the view from the large windows of a train give you far more a sense of a land than does a casual flight over it. As regular readers know, I am insist on getting a feel for a place, a taste of the views and culture which surround me. This does not exist at 30K feet, and the experience aboard SAS or Air France or American Airlines is more about what occurs inside the cabin (or, these days, what does NOT occur) than it is what is going on outside the windows. 

From a train you can see the world at eye level.

I am excited about the prospect of finally having a true world-class rail transportation system in the US, and even happier it's here in my home state. Having driven and flown between LA and the Bay Area repeatedly, I am looking forward to having a viable third option for my transit dollars.

Just sayin'.


Links

CALIFORNIA HIGH SPEED RAIL AUTHORITY

LAS VEGAS X TRAIN

5 REASONS THE CHSR IS THE BEST PUBLIC WORKS PROJECT IN THE US