xiknal
09-27-2004, 10:11 PM
I have posted the first half of my trip report over on the "Trip Reports" forum, but thought I'd copy the preface here. I hope to get the next half up later tonight.
Barb 0]
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I've just returned from a roundtrip from Austin (AUS) to Baltimore (BWI) via Houston (IAH). I made notes during the flights, but did not do time entries. The result is somewhat stream-of-consciousness but is real-time.
As a preface: I was largely grounded with a crippling FoF between 1963 and 1993--thirty years. In the summer of 1993 I took my first flight in 13 years, and with professional help from an anxiety shrink (Reid Wilson) busted through my fear of flying very quickly. I flew often during that first year--averaging twice a month. I also began flight training that fall and had my private pilot's license by the summer of 1994. I took up aerobatics during that year and have continued with flying on "the wild side". It's a great confidence-builder.
Since that amazing summer, I have been flying quite comfortably on airliners. I have had occasional blips of anxiety, even what I might call "minor setbacks"--but they are quite minor and do not accumulate. Lately I have not flown commercially more than about once every 5-6 months, but I have been a flight instructor for six years and go up in small planes all the time--a dozen flights a week sometimes. I now consider my feelings about commercial air travel to be in the "normal" (nonphobic) range. I have no anticipatory anxiety at all. I fully expect to arrive safely. I can remember images from my old "bad movies" and from air disasters, but they don't kick off a cascade of what-ifs. They drift in and out of my awareness mixed with benign or happy thoughts in the usual salad that daily life dishes out.
So I would say that I am cured. :mickey
This is not to say that I am bored or jaded with flying commercially in the way that I perceive many seasoned air travelers to be. I am still--eleven years later--rather like a little kid up there, appreciative and interested, often delighted to be there. There is an added dimension of never forgetting what it was like in the bad old days, with a permanent knowledge that in beating this fear, I was given a great gift. As many of us know, when we are given a gift of such magnitude, we have a strong desire to give back. :nod
Barb 0]
**************
I've just returned from a roundtrip from Austin (AUS) to Baltimore (BWI) via Houston (IAH). I made notes during the flights, but did not do time entries. The result is somewhat stream-of-consciousness but is real-time.
As a preface: I was largely grounded with a crippling FoF between 1963 and 1993--thirty years. In the summer of 1993 I took my first flight in 13 years, and with professional help from an anxiety shrink (Reid Wilson) busted through my fear of flying very quickly. I flew often during that first year--averaging twice a month. I also began flight training that fall and had my private pilot's license by the summer of 1994. I took up aerobatics during that year and have continued with flying on "the wild side". It's a great confidence-builder.
Since that amazing summer, I have been flying quite comfortably on airliners. I have had occasional blips of anxiety, even what I might call "minor setbacks"--but they are quite minor and do not accumulate. Lately I have not flown commercially more than about once every 5-6 months, but I have been a flight instructor for six years and go up in small planes all the time--a dozen flights a week sometimes. I now consider my feelings about commercial air travel to be in the "normal" (nonphobic) range. I have no anticipatory anxiety at all. I fully expect to arrive safely. I can remember images from my old "bad movies" and from air disasters, but they don't kick off a cascade of what-ifs. They drift in and out of my awareness mixed with benign or happy thoughts in the usual salad that daily life dishes out.
So I would say that I am cured. :mickey
This is not to say that I am bored or jaded with flying commercially in the way that I perceive many seasoned air travelers to be. I am still--eleven years later--rather like a little kid up there, appreciative and interested, often delighted to be there. There is an added dimension of never forgetting what it was like in the bad old days, with a permanent knowledge that in beating this fear, I was given a great gift. As many of us know, when we are given a gift of such magnitude, we have a strong desire to give back. :nod