Resolved in-call Flight mode issue, now how do I see my notificatioins ?

[Amamba]

A couple of weeks ago I was plagued by phone all of a sudden going into airplane mode in the middle of a call. Happened often enough to drive me nuts. Finally, after consulting my inner Holmes, I realized my ear was rubbing on the task bar as I spoke so it would take just a few presses to pop up notification dialog window -> start communication manager -> hit the airplane mode button so conveniently located at the top. For some reason this didn't happen for the first couple of months I owned the phone, probably because I would keep it farther away from my ear at first.

So, I disabled the HTC notification dialog, and the problem never came back (and before I would get it several times a day). However, now there's no easy way to see the missed alarms or other notifications - hitting on the task bar produces no effect most of the time.

What I need is a way to invoke the default notification dialog by a shortcut - is it possible ?