tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924773307171301256.post8916613025947542920..comments2024-03-28T21:31:33.544-04:00Comments on Just An Earth-Bound Misfit, I : "Hockey Stick" AirlinesComrade Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15404477636451308763noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924773307171301256.post-72811562035810582912015-05-14T12:17:37.408-04:002015-05-14T12:17:37.408-04:00I'm 68 and flew at age 10 or so, by myself, fr...I'm 68 and flew at age 10 or so, by myself, from SDF to Pittsburgh on a Connie and then over the mountains in an Agony Air DC-3 to McKean Regional to get to Bradford. Barf bags were essential on that last leg.<br />And I remember the Eastern Airlines paint jobs of the Great Silver Fleet as a sort of art. Most of the plane bare aluminum but then the logo and much else picked out in polychrome. <br />http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-martin-404-eastern-airlines-lee-dos-santos.html<br />A distant nod to the WWII nose art.<br />And I flew in Electra (but, of course, never saw the wings flutter and fall off). And transited through the Saarinen TWAterminal at JFK, when it was still a cathedral to airflight, before it became a grungy holding pen. And flew the Atlantic in '64 with Icelandic Air...and was served meals on china with real flatware in tourist class.<br />Travel may be dirt cheap these days ($100 EWR DEN) but I miss the days when the flights had a certain ease and there were always plenty of seats.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924773307171301256.post-68446029768598329932015-05-14T11:42:04.568-04:002015-05-14T11:42:04.568-04:00Sadly, it won't be remotely the same. You allu...Sadly, it won't be remotely the same. You alluded to it with the "two hours before", etc. <br /><br />Because of my close association with aviation, and growing up in South Florida (MIA was Eastern's home base) I had an affinity for EAL. Moreover, as life events turned out, and some time after I had retired, my daughter married a fellow whose father was a former EAL captain. He was a Lorenzo victim and that name is not uttered kindly in that household.<br /><br />I recently read a book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/From-Captain-Colonel-Informal-Airlines/dp/038527047X" rel="nofollow">From the Captain to the Colonel</a>, which lays out what was right about EAL and what was wrong. Surprisingly, while Lorenzo was last and worst of the bad actors, even The Captain laid some cancerous groundwork. <br /><br />I never cared for the Colonel, either, and to this day, I avoid driving I-80/90 in Indiana which they named after him.<br /><br />Good luck to them, but they'll be unrecognizable to us old timers.<br /><br />LRod<br />ZJX, ORD, ZAU retiredLRodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17181295131853124169noreply@blogger.com