Expressing Opinions

Frank Giotto, President of Fiber Instrument Sales Inc., demonstrated the Mini Motel at the Syracuse airport. The Mini Motel is a one-person tent designed for travelers who are stranded at an airport and includes, an air mattress, pillow, bed sheet, alarm clock, reading light, toothbrush and toothpaste, ear plugs and eye shades.

Lets face it. No matter how well you plan your trip, eventually you are going to get screwed over by an airline. In a New York Times article: Snoozing at the Terminal it says sleeping in airports is becoming more common. Apparently the guy pictured above decided to do something about it.

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Needing to travel by air sucks, today I flew to Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines. I thought I was going to arrive in time for lunch only to get there in time for dinner. We had mechanical problems in Portland, so they had us taxi back to the gate and board another Hawaiian flight heading to Maui. I always wanted to go to Maui but not like this.

After arriving in Maui there was little assistance in locating where we needed to go to continue our journey to Honolulu, so everyone seemed to have the herd mentality and followed someone they recognized from the flight. After asking a couple of customer service reps for the airline and couple wrong instructions we finally located where we need to go and made it to Oahu. During the whole process all the airline people could say is Mahalo and smile like they were stoned.

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Yesterday I was out of bed at 4am and headed to the airport. I stood in line for the so called security check and they let me go through. I had my normal carry on camera bag, DVD player, book, notepad, and 4 sharpened #2 pencils.

It bothers me they let the pencils pass by. I keep them specifically should the occasion arise I need to defend myself. I don’t know about you, but if someone decides they are going take control of the plane I am prepared to do what it takes to defend myself and stop their plan. I do not know of any recent plane hijackings where the people survived, so the least I can do is ruin the hijackers plan.

For the most part I am prepared for an uneventful, uncomfortable, and boring flight. Flying reminds me of riding a city bus. Cramped for space and being stuck within inches next to someone you prefer to be several feet from if not more. I don’t know why they have flight attendants. What do they do? Sell overpriced stale sandwiches and serve coffee? I can get that at the local convenience store.

And what about the air quality inside the plane? The cabin is pressurized, the air is recirculated, but is the air filtered? Have you ever farted on a flight and wondered what happens to the gas? Is it simply moved from your part of the plane to another part?

Another thing that gets me wondering is the “water landing” the flight attendant talks about. I was flying over the Pacific and prior to takeoff the flight attendant said I could use my seat cushion for a flotation device. I did not see any pontoons on the plane, so does she know something I don’t know, is she really optimistic, or has she been smoking something I think she should share with me? It sure would make my trip a whole lot more fun.

And one more thing about the seat cushion as a flotation device. Do I want to survive a “water landing” and end up clutching a seat cushion bobbing in the water? It sort of reminds me being a piece of bait dangling on a bobber waiting for a large predatory fish to come along.

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Do you know what U.S. Airways, the news media, and TSA has not told the public about an accidental discharge of a weapon on a U.S. Airways flight? ABC did state the weapon was a HK (Heckler and Koch) .40 cal pistol, but they did not tell you it employed HK’s innovative LEM (Law Enforcement Modification) trigger system. Maybe they did not know what the LEM trigger system is.

<- - - HK P2000SK .40 Cal with LEM

An HK pistol with the LEM trigger does not have a safety on it to be turned on or off. The weapon, once loaded and cocked with a round chambered is at the ready to fire and will discharge the round once the trigger is pulled and will do so without the need to take off a safety. Simply draw and pull the trigger to fire. This pistol will not fire unless the trigger is pulled!

The Heckler and Koch, USB Compacts and P2000SK weapons are excellent concealable weapons. The LEM trigger system and the weapons carried by eligible crew members has went through extraordinary testing, is extremely reliable, and safe if carried and used properly. HK produces excellent weapons and are carried by many law enforcement and government professionals, along with special forces units throughout the world. As with any weapon it is only as safe as the person handling and operating it.

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