"Have a good flight" or "Have a good trip"

"Have a good flight"

I am sitting in my office here at work after spending a long morning finding 11"x17" clear plastic sleeves for some posters we're entering into a competition. Anyway, seeing as how my quest took all morning, I gave myself a gift. I took a long lunch and got a chance to see The Oracle shortly before her flight left back for Dallas and the Great Beyond (read: Florida).

See, The Oracle now lives in the Far, Far Away studying slugs or something that apparently has some medical value to humanity (here's to curing my cancer in 20 years, Oracle!), so it's rare that I get to see her anymore.

I got to see her one last time before she left today. We went to lunch at Chili's. Afterwards I dropped her off where she was staying and said "have a good flight" after a good hug goodbye.

It occurred to me on my drive to work that I always say "have a good flight" when someone is flying somewhere. I never say "have a safe flight." And I'll get to that in a second.

When someone drives somewhere, you say "have a safe drive," right? I know I do. You see, because you're in control of the vehicle you sort of have some say in the safety level of the voyage it makes sense to remind someone to drive safely. You don't get that when you're flying.

People tell me "have a safe flight" all the time when I fly. I always respond with "it's not really up to me, now is it?" I know that sounds kind of assy, but it's true; it's not up to you whether your flight is safe or not, that's the captain's job or possibly some guy on the ground with a Madonna headset. Point is, it's really not in your hands whether the wings fall off or you come in to the runway too fast. It's someone else's job to take care of that. All you gotta do is take your iPod or your book--if you're analog like that--and sit and wait for the flight attendant to throw you your soda and some peanuts.

So, whenever someone goes on a trip on an airplane, I say "have a good flight" because, well, they can usually control that part of the trip. Whether the plane goes down in flames, though, is out of their control. It's the captain's job to make it a safe flight.

Anyway, to The Oracle, I say have a good flight home. Say hi to your parents and your delightful puppy for me. Oh, and your brother, too.

If not, uh, I dunno, have a safe flight. Or something.