Newbie

[KatieLouise11]

Hi everyone, I've just stumbled across this site during a late night attempt to find some new fear of flying resources. I'm due to fly to Orlando this July for my dream holiday, and I really want to feel excited about it, but I feel that my fear of flying is holding me back. I can never look forward to holidays because of how wound up I get before I fly, which is a real shame, so I've decided to sort it out once and for all.

My fear of flying has never stopped me from getting on a plane, or from choosing to go on holiday, but it's been getting steadily more difficult to deal with over the past few years. At first I was just scared of the plane being in an accident, but more recently I've started to feel claustrophobic too - which will probably be one of my biggest problems on a 9 1/2 hr flight, which is twice the length of any other flight I've taken. It doesn't help that I travel with a very young child (who I don't want to pass the fear onto, as he adores flying), and that my dad and brother spend most of the pre-flight time shaking their heads at me as if to say 'making a fuss over nothing...'

I hope that talking to other people with similar problems will help, and I look forward to sharing people's stories. I've gotten over a massive fear before (rollercoasters...went from being terrified to a total coaster fan!), so I really hope that I can beat this once and for all this year.

Katie

[forcedtofly]

Hi there, KatieLouise. Welcome to the forum. I have a pretty nasty case of FOF, and have found this forum very, very helpful, and everyone here is friendly and eager to give advice and resources for conquering these fears. I'm not a frequent poster at this time, but I do come here to read fairly often, and I know you will get a lot from coming here.

I know what you mean about letting flights ruin your trips. I'm going to the beach for ten days, leaving next Thursday, and am just dreading the flight rather than looking forward to the beach! But that's why I'm here, hoping to calm my fears and think in a rational way about this.

Anyway, welcome to the forum. I'm sure it will help! :sunshine:

[MathFox]

Another :welcome: KatieLouise.

One thing I can tell you is that airlines, plane manufacturers and airline regulators are serious about safety. They have worked very hard to make flying one of the safest means of transport and are still working hard to make flying even safer for you.

Read some of the other treads over here and make a visit to anxieties.com. If you have a specific question feel welcome to ask it. Most important, start working on your fears now, with four months to go, you have the time to be truly prepared.

[bellevueace]

Hi Wecome to the board, what i found helpful was identifying my fears about flying and then setting about educating myself by the way of books on this subject. I found flying without fear by duane brown really helpful, it covers everything from safety, to what each noise on taking off is, to pilot training, turbulence, mechanical failure, maintainance of the aircraft etc. Learning more about aviation made me realise how irrational my fears were, the more you understand the less afraid you become.

[KatieLouise11]

Thank you all for your welcomes! It's so nice not to feel alone in my fear.

I'm already finding the site very helpful - being surrounded by plane and flight imagery is really helping to desensitise me from the fear of the unknown, if that makes sense! I don't know if anyone else gets this but I'm always far more comfortable on the return flight than the outbound, because I've flown so much more recently - so maybe keeping myself immersed in all things aviation will help keep that annual fear at bay.

Also, just as an aside, I'm planning a trip to the viewing platforms at Manchester Ringway Airport (UK - MAN) in the next week - I've always found that watching so many safe takeoffs and landings is helpful! Has anyone else tried something similar?

Katie :)

[bellevueace]

Hi, Yes it is a good idea to visit the airport and watch the planes coming in and taking off. It shows you how commonplace it all is. Soon you will feel like you just want to be on one of the planes. At manchester theres the aviation park where you can view the aircraft or the airport hotel. I always go to the hotel as you can sit outside in the large rear garden right on the runway, have a beer and a bite to eat if you want. I always park about a 5/6 min walk away though as they charge for the car park, albeit with a £2/3 refund, just got a thing about paying to park in a pub im using:D

[KatieLouise11]

Hi again everyone, just wanted to post a quick update! I'm flying to Florida next Sunday (19 July), but unfortunately I'm still struggling massively with my FOF.

A few weeks ago I achieved something pretty big for me in terms of my problems with flying - I flew to London and back completely alone, which is something I swore I'd never be able to do. The outbound leg was a dream, I was on a nice Boeing 737 and felt almost comfortable throughout. However, the return trip was very difficult - the Airbus plane felt totally different, and I didn't relax in the slightest. I know that planes are operated to the highest levels of safety, but the plane felt rickety compared to the newer model I had travelled down on, and for some reason I didn't feel safe with the pilot. I got off the plane feeling extremely unsettled, which upset me as I was hoping that a positive short haul flight would help alleviate my worries about tackling a long haul for the first time.

The issue of not trusting the plane to be safe bothers me immensely about the Florida run, as I'm aware that the 747s aren't the most modern of aircraft. How will I cope if I spend the entire ten hours worrying about strange noises or movements?

I would greatly appreciate any advice right now, as I'm feeling very apprehensive!

[aerobat]

Hi, KatieLouise,

Congratulations on doing the solo roundtrip!!:tiphat:

It's not uncommon for setbacks to occur when we're engaged in reducing fear. I am guessing that if you had done the recent return flight on the same model of 737 as the outbound, you'd have enjoyed it similarly.

So, something about the Airbus pulled the rug out from under you. I suspect it's worth your while to understand exactly what that was, and whether there was an identifiable sequence of 'distrusts' which then extended to the pilots for no reason, or whether something specific about them made you uneasy.

It would make sense that the Air France Airbus crash is a factor for you--not because that aircraft was an older one, but because the investigation has not turned up any solid explanation, and in its absence all sorts of doubts arise--including doubts about the structural integrity of those aircraft in general. I don't think those doubts are justified, but the media loves to run with stuff like this, so if this is a part of it, it will help you to identify it.

Older aircraft undergo so many inspections and parts replacements that they might as well be new; the reason older planes are eventually retired or sold is due to the cost of keeping them upgraded.

It was no doubt upsetting to find that your reliably more comfortable return flight was not so this time. That doesn't mean your observations or your expectations are wrong; lots of people (not all) experience this, for the exact reason you mention. It just didn't work this time for you due to some other cues inserting themselves into your desensitizing sequence. So you may want to identify those and pull them out. The process is still a good one, and you have an opportunity to put positive expectations back together for your upcoming long flight.

Have you been to anxieties.com?