Saturday, August 03, 2013

100 Flights

A couple of years ago a friend had commented to me that his wife had just taken her 100th flight and I joked if she wrote them down in a book or something each time she flew. He had said that they had a flight delayed and so to pass the time started to count the flights realizing that she was about to make her 100th.

I can't say for sure that Basel to Barcelona was my 100th, but I think so. Flying 100 times doesn't feel like a lot, but I guess it is. When I first started flying I was nervous each time, especially when taking off. I still get a bit nervous during take-offs, but more so during landings now as I know that about 2/3 of all crashes occur then. Not a happy thought, but learning more about air travel also has lead me to realize that commercial flying is incredibly safe: by most estimates I have somewhere between a 1 in 25 million and 1 in 50 million chance of being involved in an air crash depending on which airline I am taking. Compared with train travel flying is much safer though travel by train is pretty safe.  Its much safer even then driving and way more safe then walking or biking. It seems odd to think of walking as dangerous, but walkers and bikers are subject to being hit by cars, who kill them.
I guess it is the lack of control that most people fear. Is this pilot trained sufficiently? Likely so. We should really be asking that question each time we enter a vehicle.
In any case, I made it through 100 and I will likely make it through 100 more. Here we go, into the wild blue yonder! 

5 comments:

veryshuai said...

The telephone in my office rang yesterday. I never get calls on that phone--always a student looking for the department secretary or someone speaking a foreign language. Yesterday it was a recorded woman with an urgent message. Only if I called her back within the hour would I have the opportunity to refinance my credit for a lower rate.

Someone recorded that call. Someone wrote the program to automatically dial numbers. Someone hosts the dialing machine that places the calls and waits for telephone replies. All this is expensive,. There must be a population of fools who actually call back.

Fools like that are frequently in charge of two ton machines capable of crushing bicyclists like a bratty kid does ants on a sidewalk.

By the way, you must have a huge carbon footprint.

Kevin said...

True, I have thought about it and being veg doesnt quite cancel it out. More like the average meat eater who flies domestic a couple times a year. Now if I could move back to a place where I dont need my car...

Unknown said...

That was me!! (I think) - Brian

Kevin said...

Yes it was, Brian. I think you had said you and Bet were laid over and started counting. I'm not sure where I am at now, but probably about 120. I'm sure your number has climbed too!

Unknown said...

Yep, it was actually just under a hundred when we counted and we broke 100 on the end of that trip. We're probably pretty far along to 150 now but WAY too hard to keep track of by now!

See you in Beijing soon enough brother!