Feb 15: High Flying

Long ago Frank Sinatra famously sang, "Come fly with me!" It was an invitation to travel, to buy a ticket to see the world by airplane. Of course, flying back then was a whole different thing. Flying was glamorous, flying was exciting. Flying was fun. In Frank's era, folks actually wore their Sunday best on planes, whether floating down to Peru or just zipping over to visit Aunt Tilly. Ties and jackets, dresses and heels. As we all know, this has changed - a lot. Like, really, a lot. The good news is that flying is safer and cheaper than it was in air travel's golden age. And it's still a ticket to see the world. So I was interested to learn that the cable TV channel TLC is shooting a series about traveling by air. And to find that they're filming part of it here in Fort Lauderdale.

The new TLC series is called "On the Fly," created in collaboration with Southwest Airlines. Of course, Southwest has tons of flights in and out of Fort Lauderdale all the time so it makes sense that they'd come here for their show. Production crews have been to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport already, but they're coming back very soon. And they're looking for some passengers to take part in this reality program.

And so, wanna be on TV? Here's what they need from you. "On the Fly" wants fliers who have some delightful story to share with the rest of us. Maybe you're going on a trip-of-a-lifetime kind of vacation or maybe you had an especially touching or life-changing moment during a journey taken on Southwest Airlines. The producers are in search of the exceptional, as you might imagine, travel tales that will connect with TV viewers. To submit your own story, simply go to http://www.myswatrip.com/ and spin those details into a compelling pitch. "On the Fly" will premiere this spring on TLC, offering more than personal experiences. The show also will look behind the scenes to reveal the huge operations needed to keep a major airline in the skies. That's why they're returning to Fort Lauderdale from February 16-20, capturing both the groundside efforts by Southwest staff and the intimate stories of Southwest passengers. The airline carries some 100 million of those passengers annually. Let's just say they have a hefty pool of potential reality show stars aboard their jets. But who knows, you might become one of those stars. And why not? Flying may no longer be the exciting kick it was in Sinatra's time, but it still is much more than only transportation from Point A to Point B. Air travel opens the door for us to visit people and places and cultures so distant that we would never discover them otherwise. Flying has made the planet smaller and brought all human beings a little closer together in meaningful ways. Come to think of it, that seems pretty exciting to me.