By Chris

I'm on the back end of my trip South, sitting in the Charleston, SC airport. To get home, I'll need to fly past home to Philadelphia to connect. There is a more direct option, stopping in on-the-way Charlotte . . . but that is more expensive to do. Go figure. The Charleston airport is pretty small and shares space with a military base, I guess, because there are huge bombers out the window and fighter jets are wizzing by, real close to the ground, right by the gates. It's like getting a free air show. With small airports comes small planes. And, with small planes come very young pilots, I've discovered. I prefer big, sturdy planes with experienced-looking pilots. I'm not sure why. I'm sure the young ones are well trained too. But, some of them look like their 16 or something. One of the departing flights is looking for some volunteers to take a later flight. Not for the normal oversold reason, though. The agent announcement goes "This flight is overweight and can't leave until we get six passengers to volunteer to take a later flight." Huh?

Which reminds me of one time when I was at this same airport I booked the one direct flight home they had each day. I was surprised to discover that I was on a VERY SMALL plane. I'm talking no PA system, no flight attendants small. It didn't even have an airline logo on it. Just a little white plane. There were no overhead compartments ... all your stuff had to go underneath. The pilot made the announcements before takeoff, without a mic. Every seat was window and aisle. And, this "direct" flight stopped in Raleigh to get gas. True story. My colleagues were laughing at me when they saw the plane outside the gate.