You can’t tell me that everyone does not experience some level of nervousness when boarding -an aircraft for the first time. Despite a century of innovation and improvement, most people can quite quickly bring up that image of the downed aircraft, scattered in burning pieces, that we see every so often on the news. Follow that up with the mind numbing speculation on what it must be like to experience your last living moments on earth, plummeting to the ground.
With me, it’s a bit of a roller coaster ride throughout my life with levels of my own personal fear of flying reaching extreme highs and lows. It starts with a trip with the boy scouts between London, Ontario and Sarnia, Ontario and back. The flight takes nearly as long as the drive and, at the time, was serviced by Great Lakes Airlines. Since, ‘Great Shakes’ has long been swallowed up by Air Canada.
I was obsessed with airplanes at a young age and this was my first ever flight. It was an old twin prop Convair that gave Great Lakes their less than desirable nickname. Halfway between London and Sarnia, it was determined that the passenger door was not shut properly. They tried to close it mid-flight but we ended up turning around to London. The door was fixed and we got our trip to Sarnia and back with the bonus takeoff and landing. Was I afraid? No.
Not long after, I had the fortune of flying in a glider at Canadian Forces Base Borden. It was awesome. Was I afraid? No. Next up was a flight from Toronto to Zurich, Switzerland over the holiday season in 1981-82. I was part of a hockey team that was travelling to Europe to compete in an exhibition schedule against teams from Czechoslovakia, Austria and Switzerland. The Airport in Zurich is notorious for bumpy landings as planes descend over the mountains. This flight was no exception with a pretty hard landing. Was I afraid? No.
Geez, there was even a flight on a Trump Air Boeing 727 between Detroit, Michigan and Atlantic City, New Jersey in the early 1990’s, just weeks before the Donald’s short lived airline went out of business. Was I scared? Well, I probably would have been if I wasn’t binge drinking and chain smoking.
Fast forward to 2005 after a long hiatus from the airways. My future wife and I book a week’s vacation at Decameron Los Cocos, north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Our flight is with Air Transat and there is barely enough room in the seats to move your baby finger (since, the airline has reduced seating and increased space). We are right over the wing and, for some reason, I am nothing less than petrified.
Over the U.S. Southwest and into Mexico, we hit what I would now call mild turbulence. At the time, I was certain that the wings were going to be torn from the aircraft. I could have kissed the ground when we got off in Mexico but it probably would have given me diarrhea. The return flight was even worse.
After getting into the air at a more frequent pace after that 2005 flight, my fears began to subside. In fact, to the point where, on a flight from Newark, New Jersey to Panama City, Panama for my wedding, I was getting annoyed that the flight was too smooth. Afterall, that day started at about 1am when I was denied entry along with my 30 person strong wedding party because my passport expired in one day shy of three months. The Adrenaline had been pumping all day long as I rushed to get an emergency passport renewal and find a flight to Panama – I needed the rush to continue. It all worked out and I ended up at the destination not long after everyone else arrived.
Captain Tom Bunn and SOAR
Captain Tom Bunn is the world’s leader in helping people overcome this fear. He was part of the first ‘Fear of Flying Program’ ever, started by Pan Am in 1975. Since, the pilot has become a licensed therapist and has helped thousands to overcome their fears.
SOAR was developed by Bunn in 1982 and he is the founder and president. Lisa Hauptner is vice-president and director, starting with SOAR in 1992. They have an amazingly helpful website with online or personal assistance programs. The program is so good that it is covered by some employee assistance plans – check into your benefits!
Soar: The Breakthrough Treatment For Fear Of Flying
How I’ve Learned to Overcome
I wish Tom Bunn’s book was available a decade ago when I needed it the most. However, I was pretty proactive in my dealing with the fear of flying and published an article with some helpful hints back in March, 2011. The original article can be seen here, at a site that no longer pays me and won’t allow me to remove the article to re-publish at IAT.
However, here is the gist of it and all you need to know:
Why are people afraid of flying? In my opinion, it comes down to just a few things. Hollywood is partly responsible with their graphic depictions of what it might be like to end your life in a plane crash. I believe lack of control and lack of knowledge play the biggest roles.
A very small percentage of people who get on a plane know anything about the process they’re participating in. All the know is that plane goes really fast down a runway, becomes airborne and lands some time later at the destination. Once people do know the noises that the wing flaps and landing gear make and that the engines are not always at a constant and that the plane will slow down it’s rate of descent shortly after takeoff, giving the sensation that it’s actually losing altitude, there is still the lack of control factor. It’s like being in the back seat of a car about to crash and all you can do is hold on for dear life.
Here’s some of the things I did:
- Watch YouTube! There are literally thousands of videos on YouTube posted by passengers that show the view out the window as their planes are taking off and landing. This allows you to live the process. What my big takeaway from this was timing. I would time takeoff after takeoff to see what were the minimum and maximum times it takes to get a plane off the ground. Once I was armed with this information, I was so relieved sitting in an airplane, watching my stopwatch and seeing the plane get off the ground well before the maximum time. Something everyone should watch is videos put out by Boeing and Airbus that show the vigorous testing that goes into their planes before they carry passengers.
- Plane Spotting! If you live relatively close by a big airport, go spend some time near the end of a runway. You will see first hand how easily planes land in all kinds of weather conditions. You will also witness the shear number of planes landing and realize that the odds of that rare accident happening really are very slim. To see more of our aircraft photography addiction, check out: It’s About Airplanes!
- Watch the Flight Attendants! If you think the plane is doing something weird and maybe turbulence is getting out of control, just look around at the flight attendants. These are people that fly for a living. They know when something is not right. If there’s fear in their eyes, you might have a reason to worry. Most likely, they won’t even miss a beat when turbulence shakes their food and drink trolley into a seat.
- Read! The internet not just for porn – read all you can about flight and what to expect from the airplane. Knowledge is king. Really.
One Final Note
Take a look at Captain Tom Bunn’s book and the SOAR website. I believe that now, more than ever, we need calm people on airplanes. They are safer than ever before, yet many people have a perceived notion that the guy in the next row is going to take over the flight and demand to be flown to Africa. The absolutely overblown fear of terrorism is perhaps far worse than the fear of crashing. The SOAR system will help considerably.
Transparency: The links to the book in this article are affiliate links to Amazon. These links will take you directly to Amazon and nothing weird will go on in the background. By buying the book, or any other Amazon product, through these links, you help keep It’s About Travelling live to see another day. We thank you in advance!
Also, if you have any tips or tricks or personal tales about how to overcome the fear of flying, please let us know – we’d love to hear from you!
