Ed Dartford
Well-Known Member
There has been much discussion in the news today about the difficulty of sending your kids off on an airline trip. Nowadays the airlines have implemented so many regulations that I think the Democrats may have written them. I happen to have some experience about this issue.
My father was in the British Colonial service in Malaya when a communist Guerrilla war was going on. I like many children, was sent abroad to a boarding school. Starting at age ten I traveled unaccompanied by air from Singapore to the school in Cambridge NZ. BOAC, took me to Sydney Australia, and, as was common in those days, I was invited to visit the cockpit and when they realized I was nuts about aircraft I got to fly the big Constellation aircraft for a few minutes. (So I tell people that a Connie was the first plane I flew )
In Sydney I had to get myself from the airport to the seaplane base. TEAL (Tasman Empire Air Line) flew big seaplanes over the Tasman sea to Auckland NZ.
At Auckland I had to get myself to the regular airport and onto the local airline to Hamilton NZ.
At Hamilton I had to get myself to the Bus terminal. The bus traveled to Cambridge. I had to tell the driver when to stop and let me off at the long driveway to the school. Then I hiked up the driveway carrying my suitcases, and checked in.
On one trip the weather over the Tasman sea was so bad that TEAL cancelled the flight, and put me and other passengers up overnight in a Sydney hotel. I checked the telephone directory and located a model aircraft shop to which I went and visited.
My father had given me careful written instructions which I followed, and had no difficulties. The flight attendants knew I was unaccompanied but I received no special attention. Most important, I was not exceptional. Many kids did the same thing.
Many decades later I picked up two grandkids who had flown, nonstop, from Florida to Connecticut. Naturally when they saw me they rushed over to hug Grandpa, but it took a lot of red tape to get them released.
Given proper education, and travel itinerary, quite young kids can handle unaccompanied travel. I do not believe I was exceptional.
My father was in the British Colonial service in Malaya when a communist Guerrilla war was going on. I like many children, was sent abroad to a boarding school. Starting at age ten I traveled unaccompanied by air from Singapore to the school in Cambridge NZ. BOAC, took me to Sydney Australia, and, as was common in those days, I was invited to visit the cockpit and when they realized I was nuts about aircraft I got to fly the big Constellation aircraft for a few minutes. (So I tell people that a Connie was the first plane I flew )
In Sydney I had to get myself from the airport to the seaplane base. TEAL (Tasman Empire Air Line) flew big seaplanes over the Tasman sea to Auckland NZ.
At Auckland I had to get myself to the regular airport and onto the local airline to Hamilton NZ.
At Hamilton I had to get myself to the Bus terminal. The bus traveled to Cambridge. I had to tell the driver when to stop and let me off at the long driveway to the school. Then I hiked up the driveway carrying my suitcases, and checked in.
On one trip the weather over the Tasman sea was so bad that TEAL cancelled the flight, and put me and other passengers up overnight in a Sydney hotel. I checked the telephone directory and located a model aircraft shop to which I went and visited.
My father had given me careful written instructions which I followed, and had no difficulties. The flight attendants knew I was unaccompanied but I received no special attention. Most important, I was not exceptional. Many kids did the same thing.
Many decades later I picked up two grandkids who had flown, nonstop, from Florida to Connecticut. Naturally when they saw me they rushed over to hug Grandpa, but it took a lot of red tape to get them released.
Given proper education, and travel itinerary, quite young kids can handle unaccompanied travel. I do not believe I was exceptional.
