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I can almost not contain my rage at American Airlines! First they screwed up my reservation, which was for a first class round trip from O’Hare to LaGuardia, using miles to upgrade. The result was that they would not let me board the flight I was reserved on, although they admitted they had messed up the reservation. then they scheduled me out on a plane in coach, that was cancelled then on another flight on coach that was late. as a result, I missed my reservation to visit the 9/11 Memorial for the first time.
They also managed to lose my bag, never to be found, so I spent three days and nights in NYC in the clothes I traveled in, despite meetings, dinners, lunches and a Carnegie Hall concert for which I should have been properly dressed.
And then refused 75% of my loss claim for the luggage and its content, after a three-month wait, saying they would not pay for any items valued at over $100 without receipts. Who keeps receipts for clothes over a year old?
All this despite I’ve never had a claim against American before and done hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate and personal business with the airline over decades.
I hate American Airlines, and invite you to as well.
This was the recent Big Foot Airport air show at Walworth, WI. Here’s more of the prop and engine.
Here’s the front of the bi-plane. 
And finally, here’s the entire beautiful bi-plane on the grass at Big Foot. 
And here's an antique sea plane, shortly before taking off for Geneva Lake. 
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Did you know that the number of pilots in the U.S. has dropped by a third from 1980 till now? We have about 600,000 today. How come? Word War II trained hundreds of thousands of pilots, and many more learned to fly on the GI Bill. Now those left from that era are in their 80s and 90s, and many not flying anymore. Private training programs don’t begin to make up the difference.
How do I know? I’m a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, and I read their Sport Aviation magazine (p.6). You could too, by going to http://www.EAA.org. I don’t fly myself, but the discounts on John Deere lawn equipment, Ford and so on more than cover membership and it’s fun to keep up on this stuff, and go to the annual monumental Oshkosh Air Show (www.airventure.org).
There are about 200,000 private planes registered in the U.S., and 71 of them are Russian made MIGs! Here’s a shot of an all-american classic I took at this summer’s Walworth, WI Fly-In.
Here’s link to an article on how to prepare to fly, and cope with the flight, and try to cope with the frustration and avoid the kind of boil-over that contributed to the “Slaterization” of a recent Jet Blue journey. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIAo2qp3IEKtFyKwsuTZFVS-MQNQD9HIPU2G0
One other tip: bring something in actual print that you’d like to read, in case the “turn off all electronic devices” command comes just as you’re retreating into your I-Phone or I-Pad or I-Pod.
From today’s WSJ: Viking Air Breathes New Life Into Old Plane
The Twin Otter, Last Built in 1988, Rises Phoenix-Like From Memories, Old Engineering Drawings
