Considering I have gone from propeller aircraft to flying any where in the world, even crossing the atlantic with Pan Am with plantoons attached to the aircraft, to the WOW "JET AGE" I can with great flying credentials say that commercial air travel has really changed. The first inner city Jet the whisper jet that Eastern Airlines put into service better known now as the 727 was quite a change. No more flames shooting out of the engines as we skirted across the sky. Living on Governs Island in NYC taking the ferry from the Island to Lower Mahatten then walking over to the heiliport and taking the chopper to the Pan Am building and from there to the airport was pretty cool, of course when the chopper blew off the top of the Pan Am bldg. that awfull day I changed my travel habbit to the subway to the east side airline terminal and a bus to any one of the airports for the short flight to Wash. D.C.s at that time called Wahinginton National Airport. From the 727 to the 737 to the 747 to the 757,767 and the Air Buses ah travle was great except for on thing, service. No longer was I a sophisicated traveler, in the melding pot of air trasportation some how we all became just cattle like the grey hound bus. Everyone suspicious of every one else, no food, charges now for everything, no llines allowed to use the restroom, sit in your seat and wait for no lines. End result you just hold it till the plane lands. Air travel now is no longer a kinda of cool experience no mattter how many flights one has been on or how long a fligt, now air travel is just one great big headache. Of course if one has no memory of the good ole days of pampered air travel to this current shoeless, exrayed, airbrushed, searched, shouted at, ethnic profiling, and all the luggage in the hold, carry on and etc. and etc. the thrill and leisure of air travel is all but hectic and like a skunks repulsive odor when irrated S T I N K S. I now dread internal and external flights. I have experienced landing gears that failed, loss of engines,flat tires, decompressions at 35 thousand feet,being number 130 for take off from JFK durning controller slow downs in the 60s,landing at wrong airports,which by the way was very interesting, and none of the above dulled my desire to fly, but today I would almost take 50 lashes than have to jump thru the hoops in order to fly any where in the world.

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