I've flown in all kinds of small planes including a 1929 Waco - after
we landed the pilot told me that he'd just bought the plane and had
never flown it before.  I figure as long as the pilot is not suicidal
that he or she will want to live again to fly another day.  I think
the small planes are much more fun - I'm more relaxed in them because
I can see what is going on.  I particularly like sitting in the
co-pilot's seat.

grandma Rosalie

Not necessarily.  I was staying on an island where a plane carrying an
arriving group of tourists ditched in the water during a  storm.  Everyone
survived with little physical injury.  Psychological trauma varied though,
from stalwart to going right back home the next day.  However, those
returning took a boat back to the mainland.

We heard the plane go down just as we reached the first drop-off dock.  We'd
just come from the mainland by boat after a tour.  It was quite a miserable
crossing in that nasty weather.  For us though, we managed it with the help
of great quantities of rum punch.  Fortunately, our driver was sober as he
immediately had to go for the rescue.  That left my friend and I at the
wrong dock on the wrong end of the island and having to find the rest of our
way home on our own.  Like I said, fortunately, we'd had great quantities of
rum punch and so getting to the other end of the island on foot in the storm
was an adventure in itself.

It turned out that the tour office had been absolutely frantic about our
boat, for at least an hour before we arrived, believing that we too had been
lost.  Innocence is bliss I guess.  It had never occurred to me that we were
in that kind of danger . . .of course, I was drunk at the time but that
certainly wouldn't have been such a good condition to be in had something
happened to us.  I've made note that in the future, I shall not take the
plane during such a storm and if on a boat when the storm hits, I shall not
drink . . um, much.

The next day, we went down to the tour office and left a HUGE tip for our
driver.