Fear of flying?

[Kybosh]

Go prove to yourself that you can't open the emergency exit at 30,000 ft and smack the windows really hard to see that they will never break. Really, you only have to worry about airplane gremlins and they haven't been seen since 1963.

[Machiavelli]

Ativan helps for anxiety and a lot of people take them before flying, certain medical procedures, etc.

[malcolmk14]

I had one terrible flight to Vegas where I thought I was for sure going to die. At one point I am pretty sure our plane was sideways. The two older people in the seats next to me both had to use their vomit bags from the seat pocket in front of them. Even the guy in front of me, who worked for the airline, was starting to get scared and commented afterward that he had been on over a thousand flights and never seen anything like it before.

Since then I always hope for a little turbulence so that I can feel that rush again. It was better than a roller coaster. No luck thus far.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller

Isn't the whole "flying is safer than driving" skewed because of the fact that so many more people drive than fly? I thought I read an article that ran some numbers and they're close to equal for the risk you're taking.

I'm not sure why I'm bringing this up in a thread where a guy is scared of flying....

Per kilometre traveled flying is much safer than driving. Per hour in the vehicle driving is safer from some of the stats I've seen. So if you want to get from point A to point B, flying is the safest way to do it, while if you just want to spend X hours traveling then driving is the way to go.

[Jbo]

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm terrified of flying.

You can read me any statistic you want, but I can walk away from a fender bender, I'm most likely dying in a blaze of glory in any plane crash.

To me it's more of a "claustrophobia" and "lack of any control over the situation" issue.

Usually when I'm on a plane I remember the scene from Fight Club.

Tyler Durden explaining about the "illusion of safety" and an open air exit at 30,000 feet...always seem to flash back to that scene of the movie

[burn_this_city]

At least if #### hits the fan they have oxygen to get you high.

[Traditional_Ale]

I really love flying. If I ever die in a plane crash, I want it to be in a 4-G inverted dive with a Mig-28. Or a flat spin heading out to sea.

[Bane]

I love flying with people who are afraid of flying. I like to wait for turbulence and then say Hudson's quote from Aliens loudly to the person I'm travelling with..."We're on an express elevator to hell...going down!"

[squiggs96]

I used to have a huge fear of flying. Well not really flying, but a fear of crashing. What go me through it is knowing that the pilot wants to land safely just as much as I do. It got me through a few rough flights and now that I fly 20 times a year it doesn't bother me at all. The time in the air was never bad, it was the landings that scared me, so it didn't matter if it was a 2 hour or 9 hour flight.

[Jbo]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

I used to have a huge fear of flying. Well not really flying, but a fear of crashing. What go me through it is knowing that the pilot wants to land safely just as much as I do. It got me through a few rough flights and now that I fly 20 times a year it doesn't bother me at all. The time in the air was never bad, it was the landings that scared me, so it didn't matter if it was a 2 hour or 9 hour flight.

Im the opposite of this.

Hate taking off...landing I am usually pretty calm. Maybe it is a mind thing that I know Im getting closer to land and not farther away.

[MarchHare]

You can read me any statistic you want, but I can walk away from a fender bender, I'm most likely dying in a blaze of glory in any plane crash.

That's actually not true. You're more likely than not to survive a plane crash, but people tend not to think about those ones. Remember the Miracle on the Hudson? Or the Air France A340 that went off the runway at YYZ? Or the Gimli glider? Those are just three examples I could think of from memory, and in all cases there were zero fatalities.

Or how about these statistics:

...it turns out that for most people in most crashes there is a surprisingly happy ending. Take, for instance, crashes that result in “total hull loss,” which means that the crash damages the airplane beyond economic repair. Of the 446 DC-10s ever delivered, 27 of them were involved in crashes that led to “total hull loss.” Overall in these crashes, 69 percent of all passengers and crew members survived. If you throw out the three worst crashes, the survival rate is nearly 90 percent!

http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/03/...irplane-crash/

And while it's true that you almost certainly will walk away from a fender bender, can you say the same if you were hit head-on by a drunk driver who crossed over the median while doing 150 kph on a highway?

[Crazy Bacon Legs]

Originally Posted by Machiavelli

Ativan helps for anxiety and a lot of people take them before flying, certain medical procedures, etc.

Ativan (Lorazepam) is also very addictive.

I would steer the hell away from it if was my call.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Most international flights are free booze anyway so you're set.

[MarchHare]

I used to have a huge fear of flying. Well not really flying, but a fear of crashing. What go me through it is knowing that the pilot wants to land safely just as much as I do. It got me through a few rough flights and now that I fly 20 times a year it doesn't bother me at all. The time in the air was never bad, it was the landings that scared me, so it didn't matter if it was a 2 hour or 9 hour flight.

Some other things to consider:

Commercial airline pilots in Canada must pass regular medical tests every six months to a year (depending on age), and they undergo emergency simulator training just as often. Not to mention all flights have two pilots, each of whom is capable of safely landing the plane alone in the event the other is incapacitated.

Safety is drilled into pilots' brains from the start of their training before they even take their first flight with an instructor. You might be the safest, most careful driver on the road, but can you say the same about everyone else? With pilots, everyone sharing the sky has been trained to keep safety in mind above all other considerations.

[the-rasta-masta]

I'm terrified as well, but never let it stop me from travelling. It is really wierd for me how on some flights I feel totally relaxed and them some I am almost shaking I get so anxious. I recently flew 9 hours to London, and also 14 hours from Vancouver to Hong Kong. I was lucky to have great flights for those. I really think if I was to go and sit in a commercial plane, and be able to pick the pilot's brain a bit I would feel a lot better. Hearing sounds that I don't know, feeling the plain tilt, I alway assume the worst....

Agree with Fotze though, I always try to think once I am on the plane: "Well, I am on here now, and I can't get off. If it crashes, it crashes. I have no control anymore."

[Shazam]

Superman said that flying was safer.

[Huntingwhale]

You need to face your fears head on to overcome them. What you need to do is watch as many clips of airplanes crashes/explosions as possible (since this must be your main fear) and watch them over and over again. Face your fear head on.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

You might be the safest, most careful driver on the road, but can you say the same about everyone else? With pilots, everyone sharing the sky has been trained to keep safety in mind above all other considerations.

A nice thing about flying is that there aren't any of us cyclists up there to annoy the pilots.

[Ashartus]

I've had a few individual flights that were pretty scary. One with a big altitude drop during a storm, and one where there were problems with the landing gear before takeoff that the pilot said he "thought" were resolved. The scariest though was one flight that was delayed for almost an hour due to computer problems, after which the pilot said we'd be good to go once "Windows finished re-booting". I just about got up and walked off the plane.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Whats scary about flying through the air at 600 mph, 10km above the earth?

LOL.

I enjoy flying and do a lot of it. I like being in airports, being on a plane...pretty much all of it (not delays, lost luggage, etc.). I read and listen to music on the iPhone. Time passes.

Give me a gun and I could be an air marshall.

I did have a big altidude drop flying between Edmonton and Calgary one time. It was scary but I was okay.