Fear of Flying

[Goobergal99]

Ok, I was watching the news today and it made me remember how it is I came to be so afraid of flying..... So let me take you back oh about six years ago....

Picture it..... Orlando Intl., August 5th 2005. My then DBF (Now DH ) and two of our guy friends were just returning from the best Disney Vacation I have had to date. We are sitting outside of the gate awaiting boarding call when we get the dreadful message overhead from the F.A. It seems that our plane is delayed because there is a leak in the hydraulics Now ladies most of you understand that being the only female traveling with guys is no easy task, not to mention that none of the guys had ever been to Disney before and you are the expert So you could say I was looking forward to getting home and having an estrogen fest for a day or two

But of course this was not the first thing on my mind at this very moment and I have to tell you the OCD was kicking in to overdrive. I was thinking the absolute worse possible scenarios. So what do my insensitive male travellers do..... but of course they force the girly girl out of me.

It all started with the announcement, so here I am thinking the worst and of course my guys have to start with the jokes....

"Hey don't we kinda need the hydraulics to fly??"

"Hey at least were going home, it would really suck if the plane went down on the way there and we never got to Disney"

Of course I wasn't laughing but guys will be guys...

So finally after an hour and a million worst case scenarios running through my head, we finally board the plane. and the guys start again

"Yo.... I know why they tell you to put your head between your legs, because they want you to kiss your a## goodbye"


So we take off and then of course proceed to have the most turbulent flight ever, we even had to ascend higher to avoid the lightning storms So I am clutching the seats when all of a sudden I look over and notice that the FA's are getting scared so finally my guys stop making there jokes and there is nothing but silence onboard the plane, I swear everyone was terrified, it was dark and the lights kept flickering on and off. Finally we land and as soon as we get off the plane my guys are kissing the floor and I am saying I will never fly Air Tran again..... To this day my DH has dubbed it "Septa Air" all of you philadelphians know exactly what I mean

So is anyone else afraid to fly? because I must say I have flown about 6 times since then and I have been a wreak ever since, every lil bit of turbulence makes me crazy.​

 

[minnie61650]

Wow! Sounds like a rough flight!
Glad you got back safely.

The very first time I flew in airplane was the summer of 1978. We (my DH, DD age 8 and DS age 6) were flying from Michigan to California with a quick (20 min. layover to pick up more passengers--We were not even scheduled to disembark). We were about 45 minutes from landing in Denver and DS was in the bathroom since the Fasten seat belts sign was still off. All of a sudden the plane just drops and I mean drops as in straight down. My littleone hurries out of the rest room and we get him strapped in. By now the plane has started ascending again. There is complete silence, everyone is catching their breath.
A minute or two later the pilot comes on and says we got caught in a tailwind from a plane ahead of us who was making a landing.

We made a safe landing in Denver and we were told to take our carry ons and disembark because we would have a layover of about 45 minutes.

DH was ready to call his BIL in Michigan to drive to Denver and pick us up and take us home.

The only thing stopping him was the children were so excited about this trip.
(As a side note I had been 5 months PG. and just lost the baby the month before so this was a trip we all needed.)

Well, our 45 minute layover turned into 2 1/2 hours. When we boarded the plane my DH noted it was a different plane and we had a different pilot also. I think there was more wrong than a tailwind but I guess I will never know.

The rest of the vacation was wonderful. Of course it was kinda scary getting on that plane to fly back home.

We did not fly again for 10 years. Our good friends booked us a trip with them to Las Vegas as gift for the help my DH gave them remodeling their cabin.
Thanks to them we now are able to fly again

 

[JESW]

Oh I hear ya...

I am not a good flyer - and we leave on saturday! I will put up with a 3-hour flight 2x a year to get to Disney tho.

I specifically remember 2 rough flights in the last couple of years.

One was going home after a tough vacation with dd15 months and ds5 - the little one had been sick with a double ear infection and we had been to the walk-in clinic...she had been vomitting throughout the trip, etc. It was rough all over and we just wanted to get home. So picture us on the airplane in Orlando sitting on the runway when they announce a storm going through and we need to wait. Well, the sky got as dark as night and the wind was blowing and the lightning was going, we could feel the thunder - and looking out on the tunway you could see the other planes and feel ours just rocking back & forth. Dh & I just kept looking at each other shaking our heads.

Then the sky cleared and the storm left as quickly as it came and then we were on our way.

****************************************************

Another time was on our way to Orlando and we couldn't land due to wind shears (sp?). We had to circle the airport and out our windows we could see other planes doing the same thing. My stomach was doing flips due to the motion. And then our captain announced that things were now ok and we were landing. WAIT! What made them ok NOW but not BEFORE?? We landed with no problem but I doubt I was the only one with white knuckles..

**************************************************

We have also had other flights that were rather bumpy - having the tvs on the flights help me a lot as I just watch HGTV the entire time and tune everyone out. My kids are 7 & 11 now and they are on their own! (They bring their gameboys)

****************************************************

I can certainly understand wanting to kiss the ground upon landing....it still makes no sense at all to me how those planes stay in the air..

Jill...whose stomach has started to panic due to the unpcoming flight..

 

[TruBlu]

The first time I ever left DS (he was 8 months at the time) we flew from NC to Lake Tahoe for a week. Leaving him with Grandparents for that long was hard enough, but our flight out made it even worse.... We lost an engine and made and emergency landing. When we "touched" (more like hit) down ambulances and firetrucks were everywhere!!! We were delayed for 3 hours while they got us another plane and flight crew - oh yeah, and lost our luggage!

Now I only fly with Prince Valium! He makes me very happy!

 

[KidAtHeart1]

I don't have a fear of flying (hate turbulance though). I realize that the odds of getting in a plane wreck are much smaller that getting in a car wreck. But the difference is with a car accident, it usually happens in a split second and you don't see it coming. With a plane crash, you have all of those thousands off feet to fall and a little bit of time to ponder your impending doom (not meaning to frighten anyone )!

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

we flew Delta to San Juan for a cruise one time, the flight was delayed for over an hour due to "problems with the hydrolics" - first time flying over water and that distance, so I didn't feel great about it. Luckily, we had chosen to fly in a day early, so the delay itself was not a big deal.

then our return flight was delayed for the same reason.....standing in line waiting for our new flight out (with American, thank goodness), we spoke with two groups who also flew in with Delta - two completely different flights - they were also dealyed coming in for the same reasons!!!!.

we decided that either this is a blanket excuse to give for any type of delay or Delta had major problems with their hydrolics systems...either way, we vowed never to fly Delta again.....in all our travels (family trips or DH's business travel, we have - knock on wood - never experienced so many problems).

 

[JKMastalski]

To this day my DH has dubbed it "Septa Air" all of you philadelphians know exactly what I mean

 

[pisco]

I also have a fear of flying (which is ironic because my FIL was an airline Captian for 35 years) but I have armed myself with some information that helps.

1) No plane has ever gone down due to turbulence. It can certainly shake the #%&! out of a plane but as my FIL says "turbulence is just potholes in the sky."

2) Planes don't fall thousands of feet out of the sky. The most dangerous parts of any flight are the take-off and landing. Statistically, this is the time when almost all accidents occur. For an example of just how airworthy and reliable planes are just look at the example of Payne Stewart's Gulfstream incident in 1999. The plane's cabin depressurized and all aboard perished due to oxygen deprivation (almost an impossible occurance on a commercial airliner) and yet the plane continued on in a straight line for over 4 hours until it ran out of fuel. If a plane can fly across country for over 4 hours with no pilot to guide it around the worst of the weather and turbulence, then one with 2 pilots should have no problem in getting to it's destination.

3) There is a difference in carriers. If you are concerned about a specific carrier then look up their safety records. Although even the airlines with "bad" safety records are infinitely dafer than the driver to the airport, it is a fact the some of the smaller carriers do not rate as well for maintenance upkeep. The airlines tend to have a higher incident rate.

4) Larger planes are less susceptible to turbulence than smaller planes. If you seriously bothered by turbulence (as I am, even though I realize it puts the plane at no risk) look for flights or carriers that have larger planes. For example, I will normally take Frontier for shorter flights (2 hours or less) but when flying all the way to Disney I will typically fly United as they tend to use larger planes than the Frontier planes. I recently flew from Heathrow direct to Denver, which is a 9 hour flight. I sat in the very back row of a British Airways 777 and experienced almost no turbulence the entire flight. Normally the back rows are the roughest ride on the plane so this is a testament to how smooth the larger planes are.

5) Drugs help! Ativan, Xanax, Valium, etc. are all very helpful in reducing pre-flight anxiety and making the flight itself more bearable.

The last thing I would suggest is reading Flying Without Fear by Duane Brown, PhD. It is full of great statistics and coping techniques for the fearful flyer. I had reached the point several years ago after a major drop on a flight to Vegas where I just would not get on a plane for any reason. But after reading this book a couple of times I have been able to manage a few 2 hour flights complety drug free. I wouldn't say I was as happy on those flights as the ones where I had drugs but I was able to handle it.

 

[Goobergal99]

LOL.... thanks for all of your reassurance and stories, made me feel alot better. But just in case I think I will use my profession to my advantage and get one of the docs to write me a prescription for queen ativan

 

[OK!]

My worst flying experience that I can remember was on a trip home from WDW. The takeoff started out normally enough and then, when we got to probably a little more than 10,000 feet, it felt like all of the engines cut out simultaneously. The lights in the cabin stayed on, but apart from that, there was dead silence coupled with the sensation of falling. Not plummeting, but you could definitely tell we were losing altitude. It stayed that way for maybe 10 seconds or so and then everything went back to normal. All of us were looking around at the other passengers and everyone looked absolutely terrified. The best part? That scenario repeated itself 2 more times before we got into St. Louis and enjoyed the worst landing I've ever experienced...that I remember.

The one I don't remember happened when I was about a year old and my family and I were returning to San Jose, CA, from visiting my grandparents in St. Louis, with a stopover in Phoenix. From what I've heard, the flight attendants were notified that the landing might be a little rough; my dad (who was a pilot) remembers them strapping themselves in and looking nervous, and as we got closer to actually touching down, he saw one gripping her seat, totally white-knuckled. We landed and started skidding sorta kitty-corner down the runway. When we finally came to a stop a few yards from the end of the runway, we had to get out of the plane via the emergency slide thing. As we walked away, my dad noticed that the tires on the landing gear were in shreds, and apparently the part of the fuselage near where the baggage is loaded into the plane was also damaged, as we were unable to get our dog out of the belly of the plane. He had to get a separate flight to San Jose as soon as they freed him.

 

[JadenLayne]

I am TERRIFIED to fly. I've never flown but will fly in about 7-8 months to get our daughter from China. It is a direct flight from Detroit to Beijing and I'm already terrified.

I will be doped up on something whether it be alcohol, Xanax or both.....LOL! My daughter is the only thing in this world that will get me on a plane and after she gets home I hope NEVER to fly again although DH hopes I love it.

Don't see that happening.

 

[juligrl]

I don't have a fear of flying (hate turbulance though). I realize that the odds of getting in a plane wreck are much smaller that getting in a car wreck. But the difference is with a car accident, it usually happens in a split second and you don't see it coming. With a plane crash, you have all of those thousands off feet to fall and a little bit of time to ponder your impending doom (not meaning to frighten anyone )!

I know that statistically you're safer via airplane but, I figure that at least if I'm in some kind of car wreck my chances of living might be better than falling thousands of feet to the ground and crashing and living to tell about it. Maybe it's just me though.

 

[meloneyb21]

To this day my DH has dubbed it "Septa Air" all of you philadelphians know exactly what I mean

Yeah, Another terrifed flyer here......

 

[binny]

I'm not afraid to fly. I love it actually.

I have had a couple of bumpy experiences and one that convinced I no longer wanted to be a pilot it was a little 5 seater and the pilot was a hot shot. it was just the 2 of us flying out of a little town in Alaska he wanted to see a whale breeching... up close and personal like...


May I suggest though if you have a fear of flying that you check out this website?
http://www.fromthecockpit.com/





I send a lot of my clients to that website and many have siad it helped.


She also has a programme that you can order


http://www.flyingfearless.com/

 

[Taylor]

I fly 75,000 + miles per year due to frequent trips to Europe.

I have no fears of flying.

 

[christygobar]

I don't have a fear per-say.....I just hate turbulance and I hate the takeoffs/landings that don't feel right (like the flight where the left tire hit the ground before the right. Scary!). I don't have a fear of terrorists or engine failure or anything.

But there's just something about common sense saying that a big many-multi ton piece of metal shouldn't logically be in the middle of the air

I had the one I mentioned up there and a recent flight, the pressurization system was really screwed up. Ears kept popping during the entire flight. I half expected the oxygen masks to come down. Luckily I wasn't having any of my usual sinus/allergy issues or I would have been totally miserable.

That being said - I love where it takes me and I love that it means I'm going somewhere (usually) fun. So I keep getting on planes over and over again!