Secondly, I believe the flight from Red Deer to Calgary is a 1900D. A 16 seater, every seat is a window and aisle seat. This is good. You can close the shutter and focus on the aisle if you want but have the ability to look out the window if you like.
Flying is very safe, and generally speaking the smaller the plane the safer it is.
Those are also fairly short flights (Red Deer to Calgary can't be much more than 20 minutes in the air). So no matter how you end up feeling it's a short flight.
If you really are nervous, chat with your doctor and they'll give you a prescription to help.
That said, have fun. I love flying. Just try and relax and don't freak yourself out. YYC isn't hard to get around and your gates will likely be right next to each other.
Have something to listen to incase you need to take your mind off of things. Music, podcasts, standup, a movie. Ideally have something mindless and something to concentrate on to give you the ability to pick what works best.
Again have fun. Flying is a blast.
__________________ "Calgary Flames is the best team in all the land" - My Brainwashed Son
Last edited by Maritime Q-Scout; 10-08-2016 at 04:00 PM.
Reason: Fixed the YouTube link
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If it's one of those smaller planes, try to get a seat at the very front. Then watch the pilots calmly and professionally fly the plane. Seeing them handle things will help ease your fears.
As others have mentioned, flying can be fun (except to people who do it all the time who seem to hate it, but I'm not one of those and neither are you!), so try to look forward to it.
Sounds goofy and childish (I am both of those things) but looking out the window of an airplane is pretty cool and can take your mind off everything else.
I had a friend who once told me that he thinks of flying like being on a boat. The air is like the ocean. There will be some bumps and dips but that doesn't mean the boat is going to sink. It is normal. He says he actually can enjoy the movement of the plane now where as he used to dread it.
Someone once told me to think of turbulence like a car on a gravel road. Similar thought process to your example and has really helped me with turbulent flights.
Welcome to flying, hope you love it as much as I do.
First off, look into what type of aircraft you'll be riding in so you're not surprised when you board. As Maritime-Q mentioned above, its probably a Beech 1900. Pretty small, very stable and reliable. You will be able to stand up in it unless you are very tall. 2 rows of seats separated by a center isle. You can see the pilots up front.
The plane will make a variety of noises. The prop noise will change a few times during flight (different power settings and different prop settings, like shifting gears in a manual transmission car). You will hear hydraulic pumps whirring from time to time, most likely to change the flap settings and to raise and lower the landing gear. The landing gear makes a clunk when all the way up. All normal.
It might be a tiny bit bumpy but fall/winter is a great time to fly for calm air. You'll probably have great views, or you can close your blind if you don't care to look out.
There will probably be no drink service or flight attendant for such a short flight. One of the pilots will give the safety briefing. Locate the airsickness bag in the pouch in front of you so you know where it is, just in case. Again it will probably be pretty smooth flying.
Consider not taking your carry on bag onto the airplane, it is pretty small inside and you can use the sky caddy (there is rack set up right outside the airplane, put your carry on there and it will be unloaded and ready for you when you exit the airplane.) Take a very small bag or your laptop bag onboard if you like.
The flights will be pretty short and you will likely spend more time killing time in Calgary.
Make sure you get there early enough and to bring one piece of govt issued photo id.
Good luck and enjoy!
Last edited by automaton 3; 10-08-2016 at 02:26 PM.
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Ten seconds after take off when the plane banks you will feel like the plane has stalled. Relax, all is well, unless it actually stalled.
Then your pilot will come on the intercom and say we will be landing shorty aka crash!
Just messing with you.
Commercial flying is like taking a bus. What scares you today will annoy you tomorrow.
Track record in the skies for planes is far better than birds. I have scraped birds off my kitchen window, never a plane! I live right by an airport.
Did you win the lotto recently? If you have let me tell you the odds of crashing is less than the chances of the lotto win. Even in a third world country.
Fly for your first time, end up being bored like the rest of us, and annoyed.
Honestly the worst part of flying is customs. Since you are not flying out of the country no worries.
It might help you with expectations. Looks like it's the 1900D on each leg.
Admittedly that's one of two in the regional network I haven't been on, but one of the ones I'm most excited to fly on.
Like Bunk said you're more likely to be killed in the cab to the airport that on the plane.
Over the past 15 years the survival rate of those involved in a plane crash is an astonishingly high number. Like 98% of people in a plane crash survive.
Worry not, check out some videos, familiarize yourself with the plane and airports before you go and it'll be fun.
__________________ "Calgary Flames is the best team in all the land" - My Brainwashed Son
Last edited by Maritime Q-Scout; 10-08-2016 at 05:36 PM.
Reason: Does YouTube on mobile now give out random IDs to videos? This is the second video that I had to fix on my laptop
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Drinking is actually a terrible idea, especially if you take any thing like an Ativan or the like, alcohol is a disinhibiter not a sedative, it will make it massively harder for you to stay calm and ignore you natural anxiety, at the worst it will turn you into a blubbering idiot demanding to be let off in front of 100 complete strangers.
I will add I hate flying, having to schlep myself back to the UK semi regularly, mostly because it's cramped and boring, the worst part of flights from an anxiety perspective is the take off and landing, both are quite loud, and bumpy, the plane makes a lot of loud gear whirring clunking noise as various flaps engage or disengage and you can feel the steepness of either the upward or downward movement and the turning, the actual flight itself is just dull.
Since it's your first flight, bumps, creaky sounds, weird ascents and descents, and pretty much every aspect of your very short flight will be foreign to you.
The number one piece of advice I can say is, if you feel afraid, look at the flight attendant. Unless they're running around, looking out the windows in a panic, or sitting in their jump seats, or have a seriously frightened look on their own face, you have nothing to worry about. FAs have heard almost every noise possible, gone through numerous types of normal and non normal altitude changes, etc etc. If they aren't obviously worried, you have nothing to fear.
It's going to be a super short flight, and you'll be at a lower altitude than a long haul flight. Enjoy the view. It will probably be louder as well if you're in a prop plane.
It's an amazing experience. Hope you have a great flight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
...
Make sure that you show the stewardesses...
It's 2016 for crying out loud, not 1963.
Flight attendants, not stewardesses.
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Just an FYI there aren't flight attendants on the 1900Ds. You may be able to see through to the flight deck, in which case if the pilots aren't panicking you have no reason too.
About 20 years ago I was flying into Montréal on a rainy night. The plane was bouncing on the decent and shaking. I was nervous looked over and say a pilot deadheading (flying for work but not working so in uniform) and he was aso calm as could be. I thought that if he's calm then I have no reason to panic.
That said if you are nervous ask your doctor about Ativan,be upfront with the reason and don't make an excuse to see I'm like you need directions to pee 11 times a day
__________________ "Calgary Flames is the best team in all the land" - My Brainwashed Son
I am also a fairly nervous flyer...I have a friend who is a commercial pilot and she told me that they consider any turbulence to be the same as driving on a gravel road. Remembering this has helped me relax a bit.
I also think of pilots and flight attendants who have chosen to be up in the sky to earn their living...they do this several times a week! As long as they don't look panicked, I can breathe easy.
Finally, as a hockey fan, I think about how frequently the team needs to travel in a single season...41 return flights in 6 months at least..If they feel safe up in the air so frequently, it couldn't possibly be as scary as it is in my mind.
Safe travels!
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