Delayed Reaction

Recent reports on the national news indicate that airline flight delays are at the worst level now than they have ever been.

Have you ever been aboard a delayed flight and heard an announcement that the reason you cannot depart is due to “air traffic control restrictions” or something similar to that? Do you know what that means? It doesn’t always mean what you think it might.

During my carreer in the ATC system, we implemented restrictions frequently… to keep airplane movements SAFE and orderly. Such restrictions, however, are probably not the underlying cause of anywhere near as many delays for which they are receiving credit… or should I say, “blame.”

Every airport and every runway at every airport has a maximum capacity, usually expressed in terms of hourly operations (arrivals and departures). When the scheduled use of an airport or runway exceeds that capacity, not every airplane is going to be “on time”. Controllers are obligated to apply appropriate separation standards to all aircraft movements, regardless of whether an airport or runway is operating at, below, or above capacity. That’s not exactly the same thing as causing a delay… it’s more like doing a job according to the rules.

The rules also used to limit how many flights could be scheduled at several of the busiest airports in the country. Not so anymore. Any airline or group of airlines can schedule more flights than a given runway (or airport) can handle at a given time… and, since there is nothing to keep them from doing it… they do it. And it causes delays.

When the delays exceed a specified threshold, they are reported and records are kept “…so that the public would have clear information about the nature and sources of airline delays and cancellations.” However, even though the ATC system is functioning as it was intended, the resultant delay would not be reported as an over-scheduling delay (that category doesn’t exist, not even as a part of the Air Carrier category, unless it’s included in “etc.”) rather it would be recorded as an ATC delay in the NAS category.

That’s clear information all right… clearly misleading. I wonder why they don’t want us to know the truth?

"Start Spreadin' the News..."

Of the many places we have visited, there is one in particular that seems to keep us coming back… the Big Apple. Susan and I had been there before we had the boys and have gone twice, with them along, for New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

Long before I ever knew Susan, I had been to New York City a few times. My first night away from home while I was on the way to college was spent there. Most of my trips to Europe went through there. It truly is a remarkable place and we all have grown to like it a lot.

This November we will be going there again… for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. We’re traveling on the Wednesday before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Think there’ll be any delays?

Central Park from the Top of the Rock

Corned beef, Anyone??

New York's Finest

All decked out...

Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Intrepid Travelers

Technology and Me

I was born nearly smack-dab in the middle of the previous century.

(Coincidentally, I was also born nearly smack-dab in the middle of North America. Although that doesn’t have much to do with the topic, it does go right along with the theme of “Smack-dab in the Middle…”)

Back then, there wasn’t much in the way of “high-tech” stuff. Telephone numbers had “exchanges” and if you wanted to place a long distance call you had to go through the operator. If you were away from home and needed to make a call, you would have to find a pay phone and also have the correct amount of money (in coins) on hand. Passenger airplanes had propellers and pilots sometimes navigated by looking at stuff on the ground. If a household had a TV at all, it was usually only one. There were no video games.

It wasn’t as if we had no “modern” conveniences… we had nearly all of them. There just weren’t as many of them then as there are today and they were nowhere near as complex. The invention of things like the transistor and the silicon chip eventually led to a veritable explosion in the consumer electronics market and for the most part, the new-fangled devices that came into being as a result, came along later in my life. I was never much on technology to begin with and when so many new things came about after I had reached the age where I was getting pretty comfortable with the old things… well… I became a little resistant to it all.

If I hadn’t gotten married I probably still wouldn’t have an answering machine. My cell phone would make you laugh… it’s getting pretty old, too. I wouldn’t even have it if I didn’t have kids. The only reason I got one in the first place was to be able to call someone if my car broke down and the kids were with me. I still rarely use it to receive calls. I only recently got caller ID for the home telephone.

The job I had for a quarter of a century did involve some major technological changes… fortunately I worked for the government. They were so far behind the times (and still are) that I only needed to speed up a little to keep pace.

Last week I bought a computer for the first time ever. Oh, we’ve owned several of them over the years, but my wife bought them all. I have learned to use them…

somewhat.
(I must confess that I have come to rely heavily on the use of email.)

The point I’m slowly getting around to is that for a person like me, who basically is way behind the technology power curve, this journey I am preparing for will be vastly different from most of my previous travels… because of technology. Before, when I would travel, my primary concerns centered around transportation, lodging, food and clothing. Now, in addition to those concerns, I am mulling over things like power converters, adapter cables, compatibility issues, digital image management, hotels with high-speed internet access, and whether or not there will be other accessibility options like Internet Cafes or Wi-Fi hotspots along the way.

Toward the end of my period of making frequent visits to Europe, I was able to pack for a two-week trip using only a carry-on bag. For this coming journey, it is beginning to look like I may reach my carry-on limit just with electronic gizmos.

I am going through a learning process here, and I am confident that I will eventually sort everything out and have the volume of equipment, as well as the associated plans for using all of it, down to a reasonable level. However, if I don’t succeed at that, this blog may wind up with a two-month gap in its posts.

Ahh… how well I remember the simpler life!

Planning ‘The Trip’- Phase I: Laying the Groundwork

Once it was decided that we definitely would take on an around-the-world adventure, it became necessary to start making some semi-definite plans. To begin, I got busy with reviewing the many, many travel-related books we have had on hand for a long time. I am speaking of things like Frommer’s, Baedeker’s and Michelin publications. While they contain a vast array of information, they can get out of date very quickly with regard to accommodations, dining recommendations and information of that type, but the remainder of the information contained in them is usually quite durable… However, poring over those things isn’t what I would classify as my favorite kind of “recreational reading.” That is to say, it takes me some effort to stick with them. Despite that, I have managed to persevere and that type of book, at least for me, does a good job of laying a mental foundation.

I have been supplementing that foundation with maps. Maps have always been a favorite of mine. I actually can spend hours reading them. I don’t mean referring to them… I am talking about reading them. For as long as I can remember, I have been able to immerse myself in maps in much the same way as other people immerse themselves in good books. I have done a lot of map reading since we got serious about this trip.

I have also gotten on the internet and started searching for anything related to this type of journey. The first thing I did was Google “around the world trips.” To say that the result of that search was overwhelming is an understatement… there were over 121,000,000 of them. That’s 121 million.

So… Where should I begin with this avenue of approach? Well, I used my usual tactic of starting with the first one, then the next, then the next and the next, then skipping down several, then skipping a few more, then skipping a few pages, then skipping it all together for a while and having a few of those Arubian rum concoctions.

Later, when I could see one screen again, I started to give the sites I would visit a quick “once-over” and then I would set about the task of organizing the websites I wanted to re-visit at some point into categories, based primarily on three things:

1) sites to plan travel routes and buy tickets
2) sites that were basically travel brochures, and
3) sites that were personal accounts (blogs)

Over a period of time, I had gotten fairly well acquainted with which ones to give a cursory glance, which to pore over a bit longer and, ultimately, which to add to my browser’s “favorites” list.

It took a relatively short time of doing that, as well as all that travel guide scanning and map reading, before I came to the realization that I would either need a lot more time and a bigger hard drive or I would need professional help. By ‘professional help’, I mean a real, live person with some knowledge, experience and a little savvy about the subject of round-the-world travel…

In other words, I would need a travel agent.

Coming soon: Phase II.

Dates Which Live in Infamy

Throughout our lives, each of us experience things, which cause us to remember exactly where we were and what we were doing on specific dates. For me, a couple of them include November 22, 1963 and September 11, 2001. Today's date, 26 years ago, is also on my personal list.

On August 3, 1981… I went to work…

Across the nation…. 11,700 of my co-workers didn’t…

Random Thoughts Department: Trivia

When the height of Mt. Everest was first measured and calculated, the result was exactly 29,000 feet. Fearing that it would be regarded as a mere estimate, the mountain’s height was publicly reported to be 29,002 feet.

Hmmm…

So, if you want to make what you know to be a fact more believable…

You should lie?!?

Current, and presumably more accurate, measurements of the mountain's height vary between 29,028’ and 29,035’, apparently depending upon whether the thickness of the ice cap is included.

Wonder if that's the truth?