Good Morning.

It's the day after....in many ways, September 12 is more significant than September 11. For all of us, it was the day we had to wake up, face reality, and go back to work and get on with our lives. There were still weeks and months ahead of us of trauma, sadness, and who knows what else, but that Wednesday if you got up and went back to work...you won.

For me, "September 12" has that hook to it that I've been pointing to for years as the prime example of what Bush did wrong. Every nation on Earth was on our doorstep 8 years ago this morning expressing their sympathy and sadness, and asking how to help. A tremendous opportunity was missed, and we're still paying the price today.

But I digress.

September 12 also marks the death of one of my oldest friends....the aviation industry.

I well remember my first flight. My father's friend Bob Tyler owned a vintage J-3 Piper Cub, and he routinely flew it out of the now-defunct Tew-Mac airport in Tewksbury, MA. I no longer remember the year, but I recall I was about Javi's age...7 or 8 years old, when we drove out to the airfield and Bob took me and his son Guy up for a couple of short hops.

I already liked airplanes, but I was hooked good from that moment on.



As I got older, I started a regular "shuttle run" just about every April vacation during my school years. My grandparents wintered in West Palm Beach, FL and we went down every year. I still remember my first jet flight, too. Friday night before April vacation, 1976. We flew the Eastern Airlines 10pm flight...Boston-Tampa-West Palm. That was our preferred flight and airline for years, until the schedule changed.

I'm pretty picky about my flights....as I got more savvy about this, I always checked the schedule, stops, and particularly, the equipment. Anyone remember the old TWA ads that stated "If it's not Boeing, I'm not going?" I got that way, too. Only my ride was the Lockheed L1011 TriStar.

It's funny to have an attachment to what is essentially an inanimate hunk of aluminum and steel. But in the 1980s, that was the only way to travel. Delta Airlines was the last US carrier to retire the Lockheed, back about 2000, but it was a great bird to fly. Now, you're sitting in each others' laps, fighting surly neighbors and even surlier flight attendants. I can only imagine what it must have been like to fly before de-regulation, but in the early post-deregulation era, there was still a small measure of service and decorum aboard an aircraft.

But it was the sound that did it for me. Delta flew the Lockheed with Rolls-Royce RB-211 engines. (now I'm going deep!) When they started those up, the huge clouds of burning oil were part of the charm; the pilot always told us not to worry, that was completely normal for this engine. Among aviation circles to this day, the TriStar is generally regarded as one of the best "spool-up sounds" in the business.

But that's all gone now.

It's been 8 years since...you know. In those 8 years, I've only flown twice. Once in 2002 to Manila to pick up young Javier, then once again the following year to Florida for a friend's wedding.

The trip to Florida is extra-special to me, because while we were in Miami, I saw an L-1011 in the sky for the last time. It was a great sunny day, and we were standing on his back deck watching planes fly in to KMIA....and there it was. Probably owned by some South American carrier, it was making the characteristic buzz from the Rolls-Royce engines, and just hanging there on approach. I would have run for my camera, but I was frozen to the spot. I held up a very young Javi and pointed it out to him, but it was just another plane to him.

I'd love to fly again some day. I have high hopes that the Obama administration might do something about the circus clowns that pass for security these days in our airports. But what are they really doing? Have you flown recently?

Local pilot Patrick Smith pens a weekly column for Salon called "Ask the Pilot". I've posted some things from him before, but this week he's taken a hard look at the Security Theatre in our airports.




There's an awful lot of stuff out there on the internets these days....so I'll leave you with that aforemention RB-211 spool up sound. Turn it up...and remember when Americans were free to travel without being suspected of wanting to hijack the plane.