I rarely drink alcohol during a flight. I try to sit in the window seat. I like to have a view if I can, which rules out directly over the wing, so I'm not always in an exit row.

A friend of mine was in a small place crash in Mexico several decades ago. He won't wear anything but cotton. Polyester burns too easily.

I was driving my car over a bridge in the South Bay on Oct 17, 1989 at 5:04. How do I know the exact time? Because the bridge literally separated from the bridge abutments during the Loma Prieta earthquake.

To this day, nearly 30 years later, my car radio is often tuned to KCBS AM (news and weather together on the 8s!) because that was the only radio station that was still broadcasting post earthquake.

Fortunately for me, the bridge didn't collapse... and I was able to drive to my apartment in Mtn View and found relatively little damage. I spent the next 4 days as a volunteer with friends helping people move their belongings out of "red tagged" houses in Los Gatos (yeah, we weren't supposed to even be in these houses but... )

My point is... I still listen to KCBS while driving... not as often as I did in the few years post earthquake, but often enough.

I worry about arthritic wrists. Not bad now but 5 years from now I probably will say no because not sure I can get the door open quickly enough.

how heavy and awkward an emergency overwing exit door is - anywhere from 50 to 70 lbs., depending on the airplane. You have to be able to get it out, turn it, and either put it down or throw it out onto the wing, however you are instructed. I used to teach this procedure at a major airline, did it over and over, and it's difficult even when you're just demonstrating it. You need a fair amount of upper body strength and agility to do it quickly without hurting yourself or someone else, or placing the cumbersome thing in the way of the evacuation.

Multiple times. Bizarre.

They ask when you are ticketed. They ask when you board, and they ask again when you are seated, I just look them in the eye and shout...


YES! I’M READY! WILLING! AND EAGER! TO KILL OR BE KILLED IN AN EMERGENCY! I WILL OBEY ALL CREWMEMBER INSTRUCTIONS AS IF THEY CAME FROM GOD HIMSELF AND, GOD WILLING, AS MANY OF US AS POSSIBLE WILL MAKE IT TO CHARLOTTE ALIVE!!!!

It's not that complicated!

long before the FA gets around to issuing any instructions...

... deploy the slide first ...

Ok, next person, down the slide, and don't trip over the spatter formerly known as petronius.

...booked ahead of time, but for whatever reason that "row" wasn't allowed to be populated. So a FA asked me and another heavy set guy like me if we would be willing to perform the task, so long as our significant other also was in the row. We looked at each other and I said, "If shit happens, that door is doomed". He responded, "well of course it is, if it doesn't break under us, the airline has fucked up".