I too am an infrequent flier, not due to a fear of flying, although my wife is a fly-on-valium type, but due to our lifestyle. We did fly about a year and a half ago, my only "tools" were the clothes on my back, hiking shoes (which had to come off of course) with paracord laces, a toenail clipper with the tip of the little file broken off (to clip off the cable ties on the zippers of our checked luggage), a Surefire flashlight, and the metal decision already made to fight any potential hijackers to the death, should an attempt be made. A whole planeload of people being hijacked by a couple of guys with little bitty blades, or just about any other weapon, makes no sense to me. I am a die fighting kind of guy.

Next time we fly (in late '08 if things go according to plan), we will carry empty water bottles thru the security checkpoint, then fill them on the other side, and, depending on what the security regs are then, a bunch of store bought muchies (it's gonna be a long flight), and our personal meds. Plus of course enough drugs to keep my wife in la-la land the entire flight. Maybe a pocket book, in case the movie sucks.

Since our infrequent ventures into the wild blue yonder are all commercial, over land (or the upcoming one over a lot of the deep blue sea), I just don't see the need for a load of survival goodies in my pocket. If we should go down, we will either be dead, or a lot of people will know about it, and be on the way before the flames stop...