Rancher Will
Blackhawk
I have never had any fear of flying. During 5 years in the Air Force during the Korean War, although I was not a pilot, I did log a lot of flying time.
Beginning in 1960, as Undersheriff of a Colorado county, I flew as a commercial passenger, mostly on duty, often enough to become a member of the 100,000 Mile Club on United and nearly as many miles on Frontier and Continental.
Then starting in the 70's the airlines started requiring my secretary, who made the reservations for me, to notify the ticket agent that i would be armed on board. That was OK, so no problem.
Then in a few years, the requirement was that my secretary had to notify the ticket agent that I would be armed on board, and then when I checked in I was informed that I had to notify the pilot that I was armed on board before takeoff. This got to be difficult since I could not always find the pilot until I was on board and once on board the pilot was often busy up front.
Finally I just stopped flying on commercial aircraft and start chartering a local charter plane and pilot with Thunderbird Flying Service. The charter plane was able to fly me to anywhere, often not to a large commercial airport, often to little places where I used to have to rent a car from an airport to get there, then wait for me to return, often the same day, and The County was paying for the flights.
We learned that in total, comparing the costs over previous years that included plane fare, taxis, rental cars, hotels, etc., with the cost of flying charter, with fewer overnight stays, fewer hotel costs, much fewer rental car costs, fewer restaurant costs, etc, the costs for me to fly chartered were no greater than previous commercial flights trips. Plus I was gone from home less time.
Since that time I have never flown a commercial airliner and I never intend to do so again.
Beginning in 1960, as Undersheriff of a Colorado county, I flew as a commercial passenger, mostly on duty, often enough to become a member of the 100,000 Mile Club on United and nearly as many miles on Frontier and Continental.
Then starting in the 70's the airlines started requiring my secretary, who made the reservations for me, to notify the ticket agent that i would be armed on board. That was OK, so no problem.
Then in a few years, the requirement was that my secretary had to notify the ticket agent that I would be armed on board, and then when I checked in I was informed that I had to notify the pilot that I was armed on board before takeoff. This got to be difficult since I could not always find the pilot until I was on board and once on board the pilot was often busy up front.
Finally I just stopped flying on commercial aircraft and start chartering a local charter plane and pilot with Thunderbird Flying Service. The charter plane was able to fly me to anywhere, often not to a large commercial airport, often to little places where I used to have to rent a car from an airport to get there, then wait for me to return, often the same day, and The County was paying for the flights.
We learned that in total, comparing the costs over previous years that included plane fare, taxis, rental cars, hotels, etc., with the cost of flying charter, with fewer overnight stays, fewer hotel costs, much fewer rental car costs, fewer restaurant costs, etc, the costs for me to fly chartered were no greater than previous commercial flights trips. Plus I was gone from home less time.
Since that time I have never flown a commercial airliner and I never intend to do so again.
