HARTFORD, Conn. – I told my pilot, “Thanks for not falling asleep or playing on your laptop.”

He didn’t think much of the joke. He rolled his eyes.

Thursday, my wife and I flew to Hartford on vacation. I’ve always wanted to see the Mark Twain House and Museum here. The city also has homes and museums commemorating Noah Webster and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

We changed planes in Chicago, and that’s when I told the pilot of the first leg thanks for not falling asleep.

So I just told the pilot from Chicago to Hartford, “Thanks,” and left it at that.

I understand pilots not wanting to be identified with the two pilots who a few weeks ago over flew their destination by 150 miles because they were going over their company’s scheduling program on their laptop computers. Initial speculation suggested the two fell asleep.

I don’t like it when people characterize all journalists by the actions of one or a few, so I understand that pilots wouldn’t want to be identified with those two pilots. Commercial airline pilots had a similar tough time several years ago when a few were caught drinking prior to taking to the skies.

A lot is expected of pilots, so we treat them like prima donnas, when actually, they’re only human. We need to see the human side of pilots more – not the irresponsible side, but the likeable side, like we see in bus drivers.

My wife and I rode the city bus, the Hartford Flyer, 13 miles from the airport to downtown Hartford. The driver asked us, and all the other passengers, where we were going. He then told us where to get off and how to get the rest of the way to our destinations.

He asked my wife and me where we were from and how the weather was in Oklahoma. Then he told us how the weather had been in Hartford.

He did this all the time he was driving, weaving in and out of traffic, exiting the highway for stops at commuter parking areas.

“Hey, Charlie, how’s my man?” he would yell out the open doors to people he knew – then he was back in traffic, zipping around curves and corners, asking my wife and I what kind of food we wanted while in Hartford and he told us where to get the best food.

Airline pilots aren’t like that. They know the best restaurants around, but they never tell anybody. They sit behind closed doors with their aircraft on automatic pilot, possibly taking naps and messing with laptop computers. Airline pilots probably know the history of the towns they visit as well as bus drivers, but you don’t get history from a pilot. You get it from a bus driver.

Our bus driver told us Hartford hanged a witch long ago just as they executed witches in Salem, Mass. He said she bedeviled a man, so they hanged her and fined the man $20.

I like bus drivers. They’re like us.

Then there are commercial airline pilots.

When my wife and I got to our hotel, we got on an elevator to go to our 15th floor room. Two airline pilots got on with us.

We don’t visit big hotels much, and I didn’t realize for security reasons now, you must swipe your room card in the elevator to get past the first few floors. I thought certain elevators only went to certain floors.

I tried to be funny with the pilots, “Our flight doesn’t go through and we’ll have to change planes at Floor 7.”

One of the pilots smirked and rolled his eyes. He swiped his card and punched his floor number. He didn’t even ask me what floor we wanted.

Pilots can be so smug. That’s what we get for treating them like prima donnas when they’re only human. They need to be more like bus drivers.