Relearning about flight

Flight service is one of those things it's hard to think about rationally.

Most of us have a love-hate relationship with airplanes and airports. We love the convenience and we hate, hate, hate the delays.

You think "hate" is too strong? Whisper "Jet Blue" to anyone who flew that airline out of JFK several weeks ago.

Or better yet, mouth "RegionsAir" to a regular traveler out of the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

In both cases you better duck fast or you'll get hit with some serious venom.

And it's hard to blame these travelers. Getting stuck in an airport can be awful. The chairs are stiff, CNN is blaring and you're tied to your carry-on luggage like a prisoner on a chain gang.

You want to make a run for Starbucks, but you just know if you leave your luggage by the gate you'll come back to find the bomb squad defusing it.

I guess I'm unusual, though. You see, I actually enjoy air travel. For me it's a guilt-free time to kick back, relax and unwind a little.

I crack open a good book and tell myself there is nothing in the world I can do to make the trip go any faster. I accept that I'm stuck. And accepting stuckness, I would contend, is the first step toward stress relief.

Besides, there are just so many simple pleasures that come with flying.

Take the view from the air. Who in his right mind can resist pressing his face up against the glass during takeoff? It doesn't matter to me if I'm flying over a Kansas cornfield or the Rocky Mountains. I just want to soak it all in.

It's not just the view, though. It's the act of flight itself that is so delightfully counterintuitive.

You hurtle down the runway at 180 mph in a 150,000 pound hunk of metal.

The plastic molding shimmies and shakes, the lights flicker, the person next to you gasps and then -- whoosh -- you're up in the ether.

And somehow, it's still safer than driving. That is, unless you've read the book "Freakonomics." Then you realize factoring in time spent in cars versus time spent in planes, driving is slightly safer.

In flight it's always counterintuitive. Take the recent decision by the Department of Transportation to begin nonstop service from Cape Girardeau to Cincinnati on Big Sky Airlines.

It turns out in the topsy-turvy world of air-travel, Cincinnati may be closer than St. Louis. Not closer in actual miles, but closer in traveler's miles.

The Airport Advisory board voted overwhelmingly last week that Cincinnati, with its 123 Delta destinations (11 international) and 380 daily Delta flights, puts Cape Girardeau closer to the rest of the globe than service to St. Louis with its measly 175 daily flights on American Airlines.

It's a head-scratcher. And a lot of passengers aren't happy.

"You mean I'm going to fly an hour and 25 minutes on a plane with no bathrooms, just to get to an airport that's in the wrong direction of my final stop?" they ask in disbelief.

Actually, yes, the airport supporters say shyly.

For a lot of people it'll take some serious convincing.

Let's just hope that in the topsy-turvy world of aviation this turns out to be one of those counterintuitive moves that have kept 150,000-pound hunks of metal up in the air for all these years.

TJ Greaney is a staff reporter for the Southeast Missourian.