Flight Advice

Before our first flight, on the drive to Saskatoon, Crystal made me listen to a podcast called “How to Survive a Plane Crash”. Nice, right? It had some interesting stats that back up what everyone knows; driving is much much more dangerous than flying. Rather than being reassured though, I am reminded how crazy it is that we tolerate the  injury and death rate of motor vehicles.

Anyway, there were three main tips I picked up. The first, it turns out that the rear of the plane IS the safest place to be in a crash, and we are consistently nearer the tail end on all our flights. Take that, first class!

The second tip is to dress warmly when traveling to improve survival odds in the event of a crash. Didn’t do as well on this one. Don’t tell Crystal, but I never got around to actually checking Sky’s packing before leaving. When we went out for the movie and needed something to guard against the autumnlike cool of the evening, it turns out she only packed spaghetti string tops and bathing suits, and something lacy. Why does she own something lacy? Anyway, I did bring a jacket, but guess who will be wearing it to the airport and anywhere airconditioned? Not the negligent father.

Oh, the last tip. It seems that the crash position has been changed. The “put your head between your legs and kiss your butt good-bye” position has been replaced with “extend your arms and place your hands on the seat in front of you, then rest your head on your hands. That is much closer to my instinctive reaction to closing my eyes and throwing my hands in front of my face, so that shouldn’t be a problem. They didn’t say anything about screaming, so that must be optional.

So if my next posting is from Alaska or northern Russia, I have both good news and bad news.