If I am not mistaken, this flight is going by systems time(GMT) and not actual time thus they will fly with the DAYLIGHT. I think most competent pilots could fly in DAYLIGHT and not worry about systems that may effect them during the night. Me thinks me smells a fish here. Of course it was never about planes falling from the sky was it Chuck?? Bet your life on it? LOL

By Allison Landa Inman News Features

Will planes fall out of the air as a result of the new millennium and computer failures?

Realtor and Y2K de-bunker Charles Reuben is taking to the skies on New Year's Eve, along with the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, to prove his faith that flight will stay just as smooth.

Reuben will join FAA chief Jane Garvey on a flight across the U.S. timed to coincide with the Greenwich Mean Time Y2K rollover. Garvey's flight embarks from New York City and will fly west through four time zones, landing in San Francisco. Reuben will hop aboard at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport.

"For me, it's a flight to nowhere," he wrote in an e-mail to Inman News Features. "I'm doing it to back up my statements that Y2K problems have mostly been addressed."

Some fear the advent of the year 2000 because of a computer-programming tradition -- using two numbers to define the year. There has been concern that the rollover from 1999 to 2000 will be misread as 1900, sending automated systems back to the Victorian Era.

But, like Reuben, White House Y2K specialist John Koskinen will board a plane on New Year's Eve to prove the readiness of U.S. aviation systems.

FAA chief Garvey avowed this readiness a year and a half ago at a June 1998 address before the International Air Transport Association.

"Aviation safety will not be compromised on that day, or on any other day," Garvey told the group. "I have made clear to the FAA's senior managers that the Y2K effort was to be provided the people and resources needed to solve this problem."

That meant renovating 163 of the FAA's 430 "mission-critical" systems, plus retiring or replacing 70 and reworking an additional eleven. The agency spent an estimated $191.7 million on its Y2K effort.

And Reuben plans to survey the results in person and in the skies as the calendar turns over to 2000.

"I'm going because Garvey, in effect, is saying, 'We fixed the systems and I'm willing to bet my life that everything will be fine,'" he wrote. "I agree."

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), December 29, 1999

Answers

I wish them happy landings, but the image of cpr (A WORLD-CLASS REAL ESTATE SALESMAN!) chained to a nuclear reactor (his Plan "B") did have a nice feel to it.

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), December 29, 1999.

Well, at least the guy is putting his money where his mouth is. I have to admire the strength of his convictions...even though I think he's a reptile. (Actually, scratch that last comment: I LIKE reptiles!) I wonder how many of his pals would be willing to be on the plane with him?

-- Ludi (ludi@rollin.com), December 29, 1999.

I don't want to see anyone hurt but I would love to see a minor glitch that would cause just enough of a scare to get their butts grabbin' the seats for a few minutes. Sorry, feeling mischievous today.

-- (rcarver@inacom.com), December 29, 1999.

DITTO on the scare.

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), December 29, 1999.

Bet they won't be flying in an Airbus or anything with a glass cockpit.

-- pilotrn (pilotrn@hotmail.com), December 29, 1999.

Realtor and Y2K de-bunker Charles Reuben is taking to the skies on New Year's Eve, along with the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, to prove his faith that flight will stay just as smooth.

Hasn't anyone else noticed that Reuben is using this opportunity to publicize his real estate practice? This means that we can't trust anything he says, as he is just another one of the "Y2K vendors" that the pollys claim should be ignored because they're "only in it for the money".

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), December 29, 1999.