Anyone else TERRIFIED to fly?

[Kim&Chris]

OK, here's my problem:

I am absolutely terrified of flying. It really has nothing to do with the whole terrorism thing, but because I've heard less-than-good stories about airline maintenance these days. A friend of mine used to work for USAir and told me that most people have no idea how little effort is actually spent on maintaining and repairing these things.

Because of my fear, we drove to Disney last December, and let me tell ya, it was brutal.

The year before that, we took the Auto Train, which was pretty pleasant, but very expensive.

Are there any other chickens out there?

 

[~Sparkly~Zoe]

To be honest, I've never given it a thought. I just walk onto that plane and keep looking at my watch to see if we're there yet! Sometimes I sleep to make the time go faster!

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

I absolutely HATE flying! I'm a classic over-thinker . . .I always get that feeling in my stomach when I have to think about getting on a plane. BUT, once I actually get to the airport and on the plane I'm fine.

This past trip I even did some video taping out the window as we approached Florida . . it came out awesome!

Try not to worry so much and have a GREAT time!

 

[sln88]

I spend hours looking for good airfares to Orlando, then, the minute I book, I think, OMG, what if the plane crashes?!

I don't like putting my life in someone else's hands. Hearing about the lack of maintenance on the planes makes it even worse.

 

[inkkognito]

Even though we travel to Orlando almost monthly, I am scared to death of flying!!! The only thing that gets me on the plane is the thought of a 24 hour drive and my limited number of vacation days.
I went to www.fearofflyinghelp.com and it really helped me. Like you, my fear is not based on terrorists. It's more on the concept of how a giant metal tube can defy gravity! That website explains how planes are airworthy, what all those spooky sounds mean, etc. I also bring lots of music CDs, reading material, and handheld games, as distractions help me a lot.
But even with all that, I vowed never to fly again after our flight this weekend. I had an ear infection, which makes taking off and landing bad enough. But due to storms in Chicago, we were diverted to Rockford to refuel. Then we sat there for a long time while awaiting clearance to go to Midway. We weren't allowed off the plane, but if we had been, I would have run to a rental car counter!!! I did NOT want to go up in the sky again. By the time we finally were ready to go, my terror had been replaced by exhaustion. Still, I vowed to hubby that I wasn't getting on another plane for our next Orlando trip. That was compounded by the fact that we had to abort our Midway landing at the last minute due to a sudden tail wind. By the time we got our luggage and got home, it was 2 a.m.
But even with all that, I am already counting down the days till our next trip. Now I am looking at it this way: Even with lots of turbulence and storm problems, we still made it safely. It reconfirmed that the planes are built to handle that and the pilots have the training to get them through.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[goofy4tink]

Yep, it scares the bejeebers out of me but I refuse to take more than 3 hrs. to get to WDW. I just keep telling myself..."the plane likes turbulence, it was built for turbulence, it likes turbulence." Seems to help a little

 

[~Sparkly~Zoe]

A friend of mine used to work for USAir and told me that most people have no idea how little effort is actually spent on maintaining and repairing these things.

Out of curiosity, could they also be a disgruntled employee? The airlines seem to have so many of them these days. Try calling ans making a reservation with them! ouch! I think I'll stick to the computer rather than talk to someone who hates working for their company!

 

[DebbieB]

A friend of mine used to work for USAir and told me that most people have no idea how little effort is actually spent on maintaining and repairing these things.

How often do planes crash? Maybe one a year? There are thousands of flights everyday. When there is a crash, very rarely is it due to a mechanical problem that could have been prevented. If maintenance was so bad, there would be more accidents and the airline would be grounded.

Driving is much more dangerous. We just had a local accident yesterday where a family of 5 was wiped out when a tractor trailer ran a stop sign and crashed on top of their car, causing an inferno. I'd be 10 times more scared on the road for 18 hours than on a plane for 2. I know the plane is being flown and guided by professionals vs the idiots who are on the road.

 

[tebright]

I'm not terrified to fly or anything but just absolutely prefer not to...lol. However, my autistic 11 year old son is terrified and he won't step on a plane.

We are traveling to Disney the first week in December and we are taking the auto train. Two years ago we drove and I just don't want to do this again. The auto train is kind of pricey but it compares to the price of flying and you get to have your vehicle with you so it's worth it.

 

[wdwnutze]

Never enjoyed flying but always did it. After 9/11 I vowed to never get on a plane again. I thought that would mean no more Disney(which I was willing to give up due to my fear) but decided that I could either drive or take the train. I am in the process of looking into Amtrak for our Nov. trip. Everyone is giving me a hard time about not flying but it's just something I can't deal with. I know I would freak out at the 1st bit of turbulance and that would frighten my kids and I don't want to do that.

 

[jessgood1]

I have flown twice - once to France and once back. I swore I'd never do it again. I'm just terrifed to fly. OMG! I'm a worrier though. The terrorism thing does not worry me nearly as much as a crash In fact, I have forbidden DH to travel with work if it means flying. (How's that for anxiety!)

We have WDW reservations for Disney though and I just can't imagine 9+ hours in the van with 3 kids. Plus it pretty much cuts 2 days of my DH's "vacation time." I'm leaning towards just booking the darn flight and then I'm pretty much stuck with getting on the plane <lol!>

I will only go with a company that has a great record though! DH will only fly Delta or SWA.

Good luck to you!

 

[Kim&Chris]

Originally posted by ~Sparkly~Zoe
Out of curiosity, could they also be a disgruntled employee? The airlines seem to have so many of them these days. Try calling ans making a reservation with them! ouch! I think I'll stick to the computer rather than talk to someone who hates working for their company!

My friend is not a disgruntled employee. In fact, he loved working for USAir in their computer programming area (he's a computer geek!) and said his co-workers were great people. Once he started a family, he left for a higher paying job with the same company that I work for (that's how I met him).

He said it was widely known that repairs were not done as often as they should have been, and that maintenance was poor.

 

[kylara]

I am a nervous flyer, but that has more to do that as a kid, the pressure changes really hurt. I was one of the kids that screamed, but only during take-off and when landing. Once we hit cruising speed I was okay. At that time, nothing seemed to work to make it easier.

Fast Foward to adult life, I still have problems with the pressurization, but it doesn't hurt as much. However, I have a lingering discomfort with take off and landing still. The pain I had as a child has now turned into nervousness.

If you really would like to work on your fear of flying, you might try hypnosis (check out the therapist certification, there are different types), it can really help with phobias.

 

[NotUrsula]

This came up recently in another discussion, re: taking carseats on board the plane when flying with children.

To safely secure a child who weighs less than 40 lbs., the FAA recommends using a carseat when flying. However, they have refused to make it mandatory for parents to buy a seat in order to use one. The kicker is the reason WHY they have refused:

The assumption is that if parents were FORCED to purchase a separate seat for their babies, they might choose not to fly at all, but to drive instead. Even though there is a high risk of turbulence injury for lap-babies, it does not begin to even come close to the risk of injury in an auto accident (even taking into account that the child would be strapped into a carseat in the car.)

Here are some numbers from the Dept. of Transportation. They go back a few years and don't include 9/11, but then, I firmly believe that the type of hijacking that happened on 9/11 will never happen again--they got away with it only because it was not guarded against at the time; now it is.

http://hazmat.dot.gov/riskcompare.htm

 

[Kimickey]

Word of comfort and advice to all who are terrified of flying. I'm in the Air National Guard and work at the National Guard Bureau. I work around individual who are pilots for a living, military and commercial. These people LOVE their job as pilots, not just for the pay but the fact that they fly (It's a pilot thing, we wouldn't understand). They would not trade their job in for the world. These guys are the utmost professionals and take their job commercial and military very seriously. So if there is someone who is a disgruntle commercial airline worker, trust me they are not in the cockpit

 

[DebbieB]

Originally posted by Kim&Chris
My friend is not a disgruntled employee. In fact, he loved working for USAir in their computer programming area (he's a computer geek!) and said his co-workers were great people. Once he started a family, he left for a higher paying job with the same company that I work for (that's how I met him).

He said it was widely known that repairs were not done as often as they should have been, and that maintenance was poor.

If maintenance is so poor why aren't the planes having accidents? It may not be 100%, but I doubt that it's "poor". I live in Pittsburgh, a main USAir hub and if there were problems it would be all over the news. Our news stations would love to dig into a story like that.

This thread is about people afraid to fly, don't fuel their anxiety by statements like this.

 

[~Sparkly~Zoe]

My friend is not a disgruntled employee. In fact, he loved working for USAir in their computer programming area (he's a computer geek!) and said his co-workers were great people. Once he started a family, he left for a higher paying job with the same company that I work for (that's how I met him).

He said it was widely known that repairs were not done as often as they should have been, and that maintenance was poor.

I have to agree with Debbie on this one. If the planes were not taken care of then how could they be flying? I would think that the mechanics of planes would be something like that of a car, they wouldn't run right if not taken care of.

This thread is about people afraid to fly, don't fuel their anxiety by statements like this.

IN all honesty it's things like these statements about mechincs not aking care of panes that would increase anxiety levels in people already afraid to fly.

I wouldn't believe everything that I heard either. your friend may not be a disgruntled employee, but someone who told him this might be.

Either way I have to think that FAA would regulate how the planes are serviced and routine maintenance handled with them.If they do that with cars and inspections and such with the state police, I am sure airplanes must go through something similiar!

 

[Kim&Chris]

I totally understand, and certainly don't intend on raising anyone's anxiety level. Just trying to pass along information that I've gotten from a smart, level-headed person, who also doesn't fly!

 

[jadedNYer]

I am terrified to fly too. Afraid of mechanical failure and LaGuardia. Last summer for my boys first trip to WDW we took the train which was very expensive. This year I couldn't rationalize the expense. I am not looking forward to it.

 

[goofy4tink]

As I said before, flying scares me. That being said, I have to wonder about this whole maintainance, or lack of, issue. You would think that pilots and attendants would know if there wasn't adequate maintainance being done. And then I would assume they wouldn't fly!! I just can't imagine so many people making their life careers out of flying if there were a significant problems with the equipment. Well, at least that's what I prefer to tell myself.