My best buddy is a captain at US Airways (Airbus 330) and flies the Philly to Rome route (after two years of flying the Philly to Paris route). He routinely DRIVES from Wilmington, DE to his 'other' home in Hilton Head, SC because he refuses to fly on the company's commercial flights (although he can fly 'free'). Personally, I think he's nuts but there MAY be a message there. We're not talking about an infrequent, white-knuckled, passenger-type here; Bob is an ex-fighter jock (Vietnam) and career airline pilot. He won't go into detail about why he won't fly commercial but HIS reluctance certainly makes ME nervous . The fact that we (he and I) have flown over Lake Michigan in a single and a light twin (my Mooney 205 and his C310F) on the way to Oshkosh, WI, proves he's not your basic coward, but still there is something about airline flights that really bother him (probably the fact that HE'S not PIC (pilot in command). Still, for all the reasons that Scott mentioned, I too, have become a very reluctant flyer. My son and I (he soloed at 16, private on 17th birthday) rented a Cirrus SR22 yesterday to shoot over to the Masters (Augusta, GA) to watch the practice rounds (eat your heart out DonM and TonyMads ) and the high winds made it a VERY exciting little flight. I have a few pics which I might post over on the BAR for Don and Tony's benefit). Couldn't believe how many people show up and how much they're willing to pay to watch a bunch of rich golfers shoot PRACTICE rounds (oh wait, I'm one of them - although my son paid for everything, except for splitting the plane rental). A fun day and a nice way to spend a little quality time with my son.

BTW, the '37 has a VERY checkered past, especially the 737-300. Stay off of that one if you can. That's not the way I want to meet Miles and Oscar and Chet and .........Elvis .

chas