Just wanna say

[JPenny]

All the trip reports are EXTREMELY helpful to me. What they do for me, is they show me all the variations between normal flights. I am hyper-sensitive while flying to anything that I see as unusual. Anything new that happens outside my very limited experience I see as something potentially "wrong" leading to disaster. The trip reports let me add to my experiences without actually flying. I read about take-offs with low altitude level-offs and many speed/altitude changes due to other air traffic. I read about all kinds of weather. Turbulence, odd maneuvers, pilots who talk and some who don't . . . . Gradually I think it's sinking in how different each flight can be, and still be within the bounds of "normal." Perhaps this will help me relax and not assume every experience that is new for me must be something wrong.

So, in summary, please keep posting those reports!! Even if you're a frequent flyer and think your reports become humdrum to us, THEY DON'T!!! Every one is helpful in its own way. And THANK YOU again to Captain Ray, for your book and for your help and care of us!!!

Jean
:bigplane

[MadScientist]

JPenney,

I'm glad you are getting something out of the trip reports. It is because of people like you that I even bother to post them. The whole point of my reports is not to say "Look at me" but rather to share the experiences I have and had in the hopes that others would see the different things that happen and yet the outcome is always the same. I want that one person who experiences his/her first aborted landing to remember my posts and I want their first thoughts not to be of disaster but rather that it is probably due to another plane on the runway. It's difficult to reassure yourself when it happens to you but it can be comforting to know what the probable cause is.

I am one of the guilty ones who thinks sometimes my reports are too boring and routine so I don't always post them. I've typed up several of them that got only one reply and then simply scrolled off the screen on the other board. I've often thought it wasn't worth the trouble if no one cared. I see now that I was wrong. (Don't get me wrong guys, ya'll have been plenty supportive and appreciative. I'm talking about past events). It just seemed in the past that some didn't give much credence to my reports since I'm a frequent flier and therefor couldn't possibly have the same fear as others do. BUT I DO!

I KNOW this thread wasn't aimed at me. Les and Deb and Mark and many others who fly regularly share a very unique perspective that all of us can learn from. However, I think I can speak for all of us when I say we do these reports for people like you. People who can draw from our experiences and apply them towards their own personal goal of beating this fear of flying. :tiphat

[Passenger Mark]

DITTO! Everything that Ken just said!

No joke, he hit the nail on the head!

I hope SOMEONE reads my trip reports... and then says to themselves... "If that idiot can do it... I can!"

Which you can... My motto... "It can be done!"

[LesliePHX]

MadSci wrote: "However, I think I can speak for all of us when I say we do these reports for people like you."

Um, I appreciate the generous motivation ascribed to me, but the truth is that I just like to read my own posts. :blush

[beaugest]

Good thing Les, because I like them too...:wave
I know I've said this before but I print out any posts that really hit home for me and bring them on the plane. I have a folder of favorites. And, of course, one should never leave home without Ray's book gripped firmly in hand.

[MadScientist]

:rolling

this guy :dragonslayer should kill the rat :hamster

[Passenger Mark]

Ok... That is it!!!!

New rule for the board!

NO... and I mean NO...

political hamster comments!

[xiknal]

Ken, that is a dolphin. 8)

[Chelle]

:rolling

[Passenger Mark]

ok... with all hamster jokes aside.... :pokefun :hamster

Getting back to the thread... I am glad you like the flight reports, I hope everyone will take a moment a post one, no matter how long or short the flight is.

Thanks,

Mark

[Chelle]

Yes!! Please keep the trip reports coming, I've gained so much strength from all of them.

Ken, I enjoy yours so much. You have a unique style that really makes me feel like I'm there :)

[Disney fan]

Ditto to Chelle's post.:medplane

[WillFlyToDisney2]

Yep, looks like a dolphin to me. :hamster

I love typing up the trip reports but I know what you are feeling Ken (it almost feels egotistical of me to type up my reports sometimes - like "look at me"!) but I am glad to know that the reports help someone. Les, I enjoy reading your posts too! I also think that in a way the trip reports reinforce to the poster how routine the trips are - how things went fine even if there were extenuating circumstances. :thundercloud

:) Off to post my trip to LA.

Kelley

[spiffyone]

The real question is...uh, why the naked Aladdin guy doing the belly dance?

And what is he...um, wearing...?


:hamster <<< I like this little guy

[WillFlyToDisney2]

Spiff - that is Big Kahoona Ken who had the umm nerve to stand up to a bully belittling his wife in public on one of his biz trips. Surf back a few pages and you can find the thread with the whole story.

Kelley

[xiknal]

I think we all love the trip reports--reading them and making them as well.

As for reading them...it's the next best thing to being there, and being there a lot lets one experience how routine it is and now nonthreatening even the little surprises are!

As for making them...it lets our positive observer take charge! Even if we become anxious, we have a bit of safe space from which to watch what's causing it and what we do in response. All good stuff!!

:kneeslap