A friend of ours flew with an old mutt named ``Rabbit'' that he swore was so sensitive to airspeed that he'd bark whenever the aircraft was approaching a stall. When I told him he was full of baloney, he piled me and Rabbit into his airplane and off we went. Wouldn't you know that ol' Rabbit woofed just as the plane began to buffet; he was a reliable stall warning indicator after all!

Wherever on the compass rose American operators point the noses of their business jets today, security should be uppermost on the minds of flight crews and passengers alike. Since the war in Iraq, U.S. approval abroad has rarely been lower, according to international surveys publicized this spring. The post-9/11 environment has conferred on operators a new aviation security vocabulary, Air Security International Vice President Charlie LeBlanc claims: Risk assessment: Doing your homework before you go.

System access and security remain irrevocably linked two years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. ``The only precedent we had prior to 9/11 was having to hold for 10 minutes while Air Force One took off and landed,'' NBAA Vice President of Operations Robert Blouin observed.