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carry-ons placed in faraway bins because all others were full.
The return from my 2-hour Lear trip to PHX the night before has thus far used up 7 hours and I am still not done.
My next flight is the commuter trip from SEA to Bellingham (BLI), which is not scheduled to leave for another 2.5 hours. I wait around sitting on crowded and uncomfortable hard molded plastic seats, and try to read a paperback brought with me for this purpose. My reading, however, is interrupted by continued gate change announcements from the public address system, interspersed with loud recorded announcements from members of the Port of Seattle Commission point- ing out the need to promptly report any unclaimed bags that might be left about –couldbeabombyouknow–andbythe way, welcome to Seattle.
The turboprop flight from SEA to BLI takes only 35 minutes, but for some mys- terious reason, they start boarding this relatively small airplane 45 minutes be- fore the scheduled departure. Push back from the gate is on time, but then we are
stuck in another long line of departing airline traffic. We finally get airborne and climb into a cloud layer where we stay bumping along for about half an hour. Our arrival at BLI is around 30 minutes late, but the gate is open and the disembarking process at this small airport fairly quick. I place an Uber call on my phone and 10 minutes later am headed on the half-hour trip back to BVS, which is where I departed from last night.
As I sit there making occasional small talk to the Uber driver who is from India, it occurs to me the trip down to PHX in the Lear was a relaxed 2 hours, with just minutes of pre-boarding and post board- ing folderol. The airline trip back from PHX however, has thus far taken nearly 12 hours with a good eight of those hours standing in lines, or just sitting around in crowded and uncomfortable surround- ings. Even the 3.5-hour portion of the return trip that was actually airborne was not at all for someone opposed to close personal contact with complete strangers, or in possession of a bottom much wider than 17 inches.
Domestic airline travel has seemingly become a public commodity, with any suggestion that it should be convenient, comfortable or timely long forgotten. Sor- ry to say, but even "riding the dog" during my teenage years was a better experience than airline travel is today. Our twin and turbine airplanes may be expensive to operate, but given the alternative, they are “cheap at any price.”
Kevin Ware is an ATP who also holds CFI, MEII and helicopter ratings, has more than 10,000 hours and is typed in several different business jets. He
has been flying for a living on and off since he was 20, and currently works as a contract pilot for various corporations in the Seattle area. When not working as a pilot he is employed part time as an emergency and urgent care physician. He can be reached at kevin.ware2@aol.com.
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18 • TWIN & TURBINE
February 2019