Letters to the Editor
jared2
Published Letters: 223 Editor's Choice: 16
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"Customer Service"
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Ten hours, a day later. That's customer service from American Airlines."
About two weeks ago, my wife, son and I went to La Guardia for an American Airlines flight to Chicago. We arrived at 5:30am for a 7:30 flight. The flight was canceled. We waited in a line that snaked around the entire terminal from 5:30 until 10:30 before we got to speak to an AA clerk. 5 hours in line just to speak with someone about booking a new flight. La Guardia is so crowded that people could not get their luggage in the door. It makes bus terminals look posh. It felt like I imagine the Soviet Union was, maybe worse. The sooner American Airlines goes out of business, the better. The next day, after much time spent on the phone with AA, we got our tickets transfered to Air China (our destination) and went to JFK terminal 1. Beautiful, airy terminal, easy parking, no hassle check-in - the exact opposite of the experience at La Guardia. I have never had a problem at JFK.
As for the Dreamliner - the name is stupid. The plane doesn't look nearly as shark-like as the "artist's impressions" did. It looks like any other plane, with a sharper nose. Let's hope the plastic tail doesn't break off.
Congratulations on your new job. I sincerely hope it pays more than $17,000 per year. That's not a salary, that's an insult.
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Merger with Canada
[Read the article: U.S. to merge with Mexico and Canada?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I look forward to our merger with Canada, when we will have universal health care, good schools, affordable universities, paid maternity and paternity leave and the respect of the international community.
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Mass extinctions
[Read the article: "The World Without Us"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"But life on the planet will happily go on without us, at least until the sun dies or until some big asteroid or comet smashes it."
As anyone who has read a science book about the earth's history will know, mass extinctions have been a regular occurrance, whether caused by asteroid inmpact, volanic erruptions or climate changes. According to the "snowball earth" theory, there was even a time when the planet was completed covered in ice. And yet life, in the form of sea-bottom bacteria, survived. In the long run, species are as mortal as individuals. Humans will disappear, whether suddenly or gradually. I'm just glad we've managed to produce a Mozart and a Shakespeare in our limited time on this planet.
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Thrust Reversers
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I find it unbelievable that airplanes are allowed to fly with inoperative thrust reversers. How can this be allowed?
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Thrust Reversers
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Patrick,
Thanks for your response regarding thrust reversers. I understand that most stopping power is provided by the brakes. I am not a pilot, but it seems to me that it would be very imprudent to rely on traction from brakes to stop a plane when the runway is slippery instead of having both thrust reversers operational, which would slow the plane without relying on traction. And to have only one operating seems even worse, since I would imagine it could lead to an unbalanced deceleration. I just have a feeling that the plane would have been able to stop with both reversers functioning.
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Faith as red herring
[Read the article: War, chaos and Bush's faith]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sadly, the world is run by ruthless murderous criminals with a vested interest in perpetual war. They own the world's wealth. They know that the public is infantile, so they select a man-child leader with which the public can identify - a Reagan, a Bush, the name doesn't matter. Religious faith is just a part of the infantile world view that the public is encouraged to have, and leaders assume for public display. "Democracy" is simply an empty rhetorical term used to justify the occupation of foreign countries to confiscate their resources. Terrorism is fake and state-sponsored, serving the imperialistic agenda of the PNAC. The real agenda of the Bush administration has been to reduce or eliminate taxes on the plutocracy; in this they have succeeded.
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chthonic
[Read the article: War, chaos and Bush's faith]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Re: Huh?
"chthonic forces far too large for us to comprehend, let along control."
chthnonic:
Dwelling in or beneath the surface of the earth.
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Feathery hat
[Read the article: The artful seducer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One look at that hat and I don't know how any intelligent woman (or man for that matter) could keep from laughing out loud.
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Re: Folger
[Read the article: Ask the Pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I saw the movie Sicko which implied that if the government paid all medical bills these problems would disappear. This is roughly equivalet to saying if airlines were regulated flying would be marvelous. Yeah, right."
Folger, you are wrong. I lived in Canada for 40 years with "socialized medicine". It is much better than the insane HMO maze of bureaucracy they have here. Don't believe the right wing propaganda - it comes from over-paid doctors, health insurance executives and pharmaceutical executives who have a massive vested interest in keeping their huge cash cow going while patients suffer. Before you judge, try visiting countries that actually put people's health ahead of profits like Canada or France. Then you will know what you are talking about.
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What you love doing
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I always thought flying was nothing but miserable drudgery, hard work, airsickness, boring holding patterns, near death experiences, Iraqi bullets, and dead friends"
When I was younger, I wanted to learn to fly. One day I actually arranged to go up in a 2 seater glider. I imagined it would be an exhilarating thrill, a taste of freedom. In reality, it was extremely tense and unpleasant. As for being a commercial pilot, jet-lag alone is enough to put me off that idea. I take over a week to get back to normal after a trip to China. I guess the truth is you have to love what you do. As Confucius said, "find what you love to do and you will never work another day in your life". For me, that's a 9 to 5 office job. For others, it means piloting a plane halfway around the world. Good thing people are different. Best of luck, Patrick, and glad to see you back to what you love to do.