Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for June 28, 2009

And Mom adds: “Thank Heaven!”

Remind me to check to see who is the pilot before I fly again.

May be he can apply now and reserve his place in the pilot training school

Sullenberger he ain’t!

with all the airlines crahes you here on the news just how safe is it to fly.

Well, Calvin can’t anyway

I sure hope there are no barrel rolls on my next flight

Someone told me some of the smaller airlines are paying pilots $20,000 a year. If that is true it is a bit scary.

I’ve had a couple of close calls in planes. Almost parked on the side of a mountain once on a hunting trip - pilot was distracted. Another time we blew a tire on takeoff and sucked the rubber into one of the jet engine (747) - emergency landing.

What’s your best pilot/flying experience?

ladywolf17 said

with all the airlines crashes you here on the news just how safe is it to fly.

Actually, flying is safer than driving a car, the problem is publicity. We always hear “car safety… blah blah… Car and Driver’s top… blah blah…” well, you get the point. But we only hear about airplanes when something goes hideously wrong. So, no, you don’t really need to be scared of flying.

“What’s your best pilot/flying experience?”

Best?!? All the ones that landed at their destinations without incident of course!

If I get on a plane and find out the captain’s name is Calvin, I’ll be catching a later plane with a different airline.

The roughest landing I’ve ever had on a commercial jetliner was in Boston. But then, given the wind shear (just for starters), I’m told that’s a pretty normal experience.

The most happily unforgettable landing? At London’s Heathrow Airport, at the end of this past May. It might’ve been at Ben Gurion in Israel in January 2008, but the weather was cloudy then.

I meet so few Calvins that I seriously doubt the pilot of either plane was named Calvin.

Only with God’s help, Calvin will win!

If man were meant to fly…

…he’d have a cape!

calvin ll never be a pilot… instead of flyin plane he ll fly off to open space in his spaceship to fight the aliens monsters… lolz.. fly on Cap Spiff… save us…

In Calvin’s imaginary world it was the other pilot who started playing chicken.

i used to take a short puddle jumper flight years ago. The pilot’s favorite line was:

“The flight will take 15 minutes. If we land sooner, there is a life jacket under your seat!”

Do they still sell flight insurance?

if calvin was a pilot, his flights would arrive on time because he would not let anyone get ahead of his plane

Well done Calvin! Always switch on the “fasten seat belts” light before barrel rolling a jet airliner. You’re such a professional.

Calvin, you can’t become a pilot at age 14 because you’ve still got 7 more years before you can legally get drunk!

My most memorable flight (I almost said “memorial”) was flying from St Louis to Indy. The flight seemed to be IN a thunderstorm the whole way. Finally, at the most violent air of the trip, we saw the airport lights of Indianapolis underneath us. The pilot came on the speaker and said, “Folks, I really want to walk away from this landing. We are going back to St Louis and you can find another flight home.” We flew back. I rented a car.

Looks like Calvin wants to take the lessons learned on the highway to the “friendly” skies.

I remember a flight in to Montreal in soupy skies. As we’re coming in to land, someone said they saw another plane…and us suddenly pulling back up.

I normally don’t like flying on puddle-jumpers either, but there were a couple times I had to take a puddle jumper from Denver to Amarillo. Those were both white knuckle trips for me and one of them, the wind shear was especially bad. I swear we were coming in to Amarillo at an angle. I was never happier to get my feet on solid ground!

One short flight out of Seattle to Port Angeles. Never was anywhere else I wanted to go that badly or in that much of a hurry. Enjoy the scenery.

Its true that if you play the percentages, you are more likely to be in a car crash than a plane crash. However, if you look at the percentages again, you are more likely to survive a car crash than a plane crash. Its russian roulette either way.

(whispering)…Psst Calvin. I know it’s your world but the throttles go forward to make the jet go f-a-s-t-e-r, yesss, faster, faster, faster…

I wonder if he left his speaker to the passengers on all that time…

man i wanna be on that plane

Just remember that landings are not optional.

Please tell me what person (who was a member of a Union at that) would work for $20,000 a year. That is less than poverty level. No professional pilot would do it.

My brother and sister in law are both pilots. Both have commercial ratings. My brother never worked for the major airlines because he couldn’t have mechanical control over the plane. In the major airlines if the mechanic says the plane is OK that’s it. My brother was a corporate pilot (chief pilot) and if he said the plane was grounded it was grounded. The pilots fly those planes every day and they know when things aren’t just right. My brother retired from flying with a perfect record and never had an accident. He has written a book about instrument flying and one about purchasing and evaluating airplanes.

Calvin would have loved my SIL. She is an aerobatic (not a stunt) pilot. Aerobatics are done high up in the air and not close to the ground like stunt flying. Therefore aerobatics are safer.

Once, while staring out the window at the clouds, I saw the flash of another passenger jet going the opposite direction waaay to close for comfort!—the close encounter lasted a nano-second since it was at a combined speed of 1,200+ mph. Only one other passenger saw it. We were in wide-eyed shock.

I now wonder if Calvin wasn’t flying our plane and playing chicken with some rival airline.

Calvin, Calvin….switching on the lights doesn’t automatically mean that the passengers’ seatbelts ARE fastened!! lol

Actually, Calvin’s mom is lying to him! You can get a pilot’s license at 14! But she is smart* enought to just say *NO*!

Yukoner flying from Chicago to Portland, ME our plane suddenly pulled up hard. When I looked out the window a plane coming at our side (perpendicular to us) was diving hard. If our landing gear had been down I think we would have clipped them!

I’m retired from an airline andd a private pilot. I’d rather fly ten to one than get in a car. N7326F is my airplane number.

There’s no need to fasten your seat belts for a barrel roll. It is a variation of a loop, which is a positive G maneuver - you’ll always be getting pushed “down” into your seat.

Bob Hoover is famous for demonstrating this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw2qPLEgKdQ

I agree with olfart. The TSA is useless! In the last test, 50% of the practice bombs got through in spite of all the passenger harassment. We need to boycott all air travel until the government comes to their senses and quits treating passengers like criminals.

5g’s? I like how Calvin knows his physics

Flying in a puddle jumper to Catalina, CA. The airport is on top of a mountain and you have to fly into the side of the mountain and let the windsheer blow you up to the level of the runway to land. No one asked what happens if the wind stops? Will never, ever do that again.

Sorry Calvin–if you pull back on the throttle you’re going to lurch backwards, not ahead. Also rpstrong is correct; the famous RA “Bob” Hoover barrel roll shows a glass of tea on the “dashboard” of his ShrikeCommander barely moving while the “horizon” does a 360. Properly done you pull one gee the whole time. Check out the video.

The Catalina airport is more properly known as Avalon, and the runway arches in the middle - you can only see about half of it when you are on the approach.

My friend flew four of us in once for a “$100 hamburger” (or bison burger, as it was.) He greased the landing, but a plane ahead of us gave up and flew back to the mainland after missing three approaches.

DO A BARREL ROLL!

If God had not meant us to fly, he/she would not have given us wings!

No, I didn’t make a mistake - I wrote it right. Ask any pilot, or any poet, whether we have wings!

@olfart;

“the patriot act turned the airports into nazi theme parks” - would you care to elaborate? I haven’t flown for a long time. And my most recent flights were from Canada to Canada.

@rpstrong;

What does “greased the landing” mean?

RinaFarina said: ”If God had not meant us to fly, he/she would not have given us wings! No, I didn’t make a mistake - I wrote it right.”

…..And if the Devil wanted us to think God was a woman, he/she would have sent a woman to suggest it.

;D

A good landing is one that you can walk away from.

Love olfart’s comment and I heartily agree. Take Amtrak. I haven’t flown in years, and on the train, I take off my shoes to relax, not to prove I’m not a disguised terrorist. Of course, Amtrak can’t solve everyone’s travel needs (no, the train doesn’t go to Europe), but think about it next time. Great way to travel. No gestapo tactics under the guise of “security”.

Am I the only one who was initially confused by the colouring errors? According to the story and the voice balloons, sometimes Calvin’s plane is the gray one and sometimes it’s the white one.

@RinaFarina -

A “greased landing” is a perfect landing.

Also, a “$100 hamburger” is slang for flying to a nearby airport for lunch, typically just to accrue flight hours (required to keep the license current).

after working on aircraft engines for 15 years, will never get me on a plane. the things they would let go to meet schedule, kind of like never eating in a restaurant after working in the kitchen. love that barrel roll…

Most memorable flight: Bangkok to Tel Aviv with El-Al. Four security checks, over crowded plane, uncomfortable seats but, boy, did I feel safe!

I won’t mention the airline by name just in case but about 30 years ago on a prop plane from Puerto Rico to St Thomas the pilot climbed aboard looking about 16 years old. He took a chain that was spot welded to the door frame and wrapped it around the handle before going forward to start the engines. I’m not usually afraid of flying.

In tomorrows comic, Calvin’s gonna be in biiig trouble….

rpstrong - It seems like the exact opposite of “greased train tracks”.

Calvin’s airline “Upchuck Airways,” their motto, “No meal left unregurgitated!” Calvinesque flying at it’s finest.

A great landing is one where you can use the airplane again.

I think I was on this flight!

Everyone seems to have forgotten that terrorists did in fact hijack planes and use them as weapons. I have flown many, many times since then and I will gladly deal with an extra 5 minutes (yes 5 MINUTES) of security checks to try to avoid another catastrophe. Conspiracy theorists: enjoy your bunkers and canned food while I’m out traveling the world sampling regional quisine.