“Sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.”

No matter what your pilot tells you, taking a plane trip these days is likely to be irritating, uncomfortable and, often, quite maddening.

For millions of people it’s all that and absolutely frightening.

Despite statistics that tell us flying is one of the safest modes of travel, many people will only fly if they have to. Others are so afraid of flying that they will never travel by air at all. And when someone is too afraid to fly they can end up grounding not only themselves, but their families, their vacations and their careers.

Where can fearful fliers go for help? To the airport! In my At the Airport column posted on USATODAY.com, I profile several fear of flying classes offered by airports and by airlines, including the Air France “Anti-Stress” class that includes “pretend engine-failure” in a flight simulator.

Anti-stress class, courtesy of Air France

Heading to Milwaukee this weekend for the grand opening of the 20-acre downtown Harley-Davidson Museum or planning to be there later this summer (August 28-31) for the Harley-Davidson 105th Anniversary Celebration?

Keep an eye out for the 1956 Harley-Davidson model Kh that belonged to Elvis Presley. And check out the 13-foot customized motorcycle known as the “King Kong.”

And don’t forget: there’s always free parking for motorcycles at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport.

And if you can’t make it to Milwaukee this summer – or don’t even have a motorcycle – here’s one you can cut-out and and make at home.

When you’re stuck at the airport, wouldn’t it be great if there was a place where you could take a shower and a nap or just close the door and watch a movie or get some work done?

In some airports there are. A great example is the YOTEL, the short-stay hotel located inside the South Terminal at London’s Gatwick airport.

The brainchild of Simon Woodroffe, a brash British entrepreneur who also created a conveyor belt-style chain of sushi bars called YO! Sushi, the 46-room Gatwick YOTEL offers rooms that are a cross between what you might find in a Japanese pod-hotel and an amenity-rich first-class airplane cabin. But these rooms also include full showers, flat-screen TVs, wireless Internet access and room service.

Travelers can book a YOTEL room for as little as four-hours. So it seems ideal for those times when you’ve just come off a long flight or have a super early departure in the morning. Prices start at about $50 for a standard cabin for the minimum four-hour booking, but during August, to celebrate the GATWICK YOTEL’s first anniversary, overnight stays will go for under $100.

Not traveling through Gatwick? There’s a 32-cabin YOTEL in Terminal 4 at London’s Heathrow airport and another YOTEL scheduled to open at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport later this year.

So sleep tight – but sleep fast!

Flying anywhere this holiday weekend? I volunteered to serve as a courier and will be heading to the Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to pick up Joplin, a retired service dog being adopted by a friend.

While I’m there, I may have just enough time on the ground to do a little shopping for maple products and local handicrafts in the airport shops.

In the meantime, I bet lots of folks will be spending this weekend complaining about the high price of gas. And I bet on Monday, like the people I talked to for this week’s Well Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com, some of them are going to do something about it.

Column illustration by MSNBC.com’s Duane Hoffman

I’ve got a long list of services and amenities I’d like to see offered at airports. Speed-dating and remedial classes in packing are on the list.

And so is tattooing.

Which is why I was tickled to see that, along with a jazz trio and an Uncle Sam on stilts, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) hired an air brush artist to paint tattoos on some of the 1.1 million passengers expected to pass through the airport this holiday weekend.

Photo taken by Sarah McDaniel-Langhorst of DFW International Airport staff.

Marian Anderson, Mario Lanza, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie are just some of the 107 legendary musicians, singers, and entertainers from Philadelphia honored with bronze plaques downtown, on the city’s Avenue of the Arts, on Broad Street between Walnut and Pine.

But not everyone can make it downtown. So now, for folks who are stuck at the airport, there are portraits of 44 Philadelphia-rooted legends on display at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).

(From the Art & Exhibitions section of the PHL Web site)

For a few months now, Air France has been testing in-flight data and cell-phone service on one of its planes. (I flew on one of the cell-phones-allowed flights and wrote about it in my Well-Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com.)

Now comes word that passengers on at least one TAP Portugal plane can send and receive e-mail and make flying phone calls as well. The airline has equipped a single Airbus A319 aircraft with the Mobile OnAir service and will test that service for six months.

On the test plane – and perhaps eventually on all TAP Portugal flights across Europe – passengers can use BlackBerry-type devices and mobile phones to send and receive emails and text messages, and to make and receive voice calls.

If you have fond memories of hanging around Oakland International Airport (OAK) and are affiliated with a non-profit in the Bay Area that could use some “gently used” chairs from the 1980′s, get in touch with the folks at the Port of Oakland.

The airport recently completed a $300 million makeover that included the extension and renovation of Terminal 2 and the replacement of more than 6,000 chairs in Terminals 1 and 2.

Some of the old chairs are going to be showing up in the recreation rooms at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland – but the rest are up for grabs.

Photo courtesy Oakland International Airport

A few years back I wrote an article about animals helping airports keep wildlife off the airfields and out of airplane engines. That’s when I first learned about Radar, the official bird dog on duty at Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) in Fort Myers.

Back in 1999, the airport was the first commercial airport in the US to use a dog as part of a Wildlife Management Program. (Other airports used everything from guns and firecrackers to hawks and people flapping their “wings.” Seriously.) Radar was the second dog “hired” at RSW for the job.

Now, after 7 years on the job, Radar is retiring. The nine-year old Border Collie first joined the airport’s security team in June 2001 and was trained to herd, not hurt, birds. Now she gets to hang out at home, on the five-acre ranch of her handler.

Airport officials say “Radar was napping and was thus not available for comment,” but they’re sure Radar is looking forward to enjoying her retirement.

Photo of Radar courtesy Southwest Florida International Airport

Starting on July 4^th, waiting on line at a security checkpoint at San Diego International Airport (SAN) will be a bit more entertaining.

The airport is rolling out a series of “info-tainment” videos featuring popular San Diego mascots offering tips to travelers about what can and cannot be taken through the checkpoints.

Look for the San Diego Zoo’s Bamboo Bear, Legoland’s Johnny Thunder, the San Diego Padres’ Friar, and Shamu from SeaWorld.

SAN isn’t the only airport to feature celebrity videos at the security checkpoints. In Las Vegas, McCarran International Airport partnered with the local Convention and Visitors Authority to create almost a dozen short videos featuring Las Vegas “luminaries” such as Wayne Newton, Rita Rudner, Carrot Top, magicians, aliens, and acrobats demonstrating the proper way to go through the security checkpoints. You don’t even need to be on line at the airport to see the videos: they’re on the airport’s website under Traveler Tips.