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#21
03-12-2006, 07:56 PM
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Re: Fear of Flying
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] I related a story here about a plane I was in sucking a bird into an engine on takeoff, and ever since then I'm a wreck on takeoff. [/ QUOTE ] I don't know if anyone mentioned this in the previous thread or the details of the story, but some of the testing for airplanes includes launching frozen turkeys into the engines. They think of everything. [/ QUOTE ] I have done contract work for a company that does very little but test windheilds, wing edges, and engines using such techniques. I have been grounded as a passenger due to a goose cracking the windshiled. But I am fairly confindent you could fly a flock of unfrozen birds through an engine and come out just fine because I've seen how an engine handles an 18 lb. frozen turkey. You should see some of the other stuff they use. Seems a bit against my common sense, but I've seen such tests first hand. 
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#22
03-12-2006, 08:20 PM
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Re: Fear of Flying
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] Am I the only one who reads this stat and thinks it makes it MORE likely that something's going to happen soon? [/ QUOTE ] Classic Gambler's Fallacy. [/ QUOTE ] not necessarily. maintenance workers are likely more careful soon after a crash, decreasing crash probabilities for the near future.
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#23
03-12-2006, 08:30 PM
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Re: Fear of Flying
We had a similiar thread a few weeks ago here, but I have have concerns re: maintenance. How do I know that some under paid, over worked, maintenance guy actually checked everything out? For all I know he just checked everything off and took an early lunch.
Wasnt there a Dateline or 20\20 about that a few years ago?
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#27
03-12-2006, 09:09 PM
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Re: Fear of Flying
I don't like flying mainly because of the hassle, not because of fear. However, once upon a time I did have fear, and I have overcome it by understanding just what my fear was all about.
On one flight I was seated next to a guy who worked at Pratt and Whitney, and he explained all the various noises and told me what was normal--and what was not. Knowing that all the various whirrings and thumpings were normal helped a lot. On another trip I had to take two different planes from two different airlines. By coincidence on both flights the normal jetway door wouldn't open when it was time to exit the plane. We were on the ground all mashed together in the aisles, waiting while they opened the door in the tail. Both times I was in hysterics until the tail door opened--even though we were perfectly safe on the ground. I then realized that claustrophobia was my major flying problem. Just realizing that helped--and now I always get an aisle seat which also helps. Once on a flight across the Atlantic, somehow I was slotted into a middle seat even though I had booked an aisle. I told the purser he had a choice--either he could find me an aisle seat, or he could listen to me screaming all the way from Europe to North America. He didn't have an aisle, but he put me in the baby cot row which has extra space between the seats and the bulkhead so I didn't feel hemmed in and I was fine. So my advice is to determine exactly what about the takeoff is causing the anxiety, and try to find some way to alleviate that aspect. If it's the noise, get ear plugs, and so on. BTW I think the claustrophobia stems from lack of control, because I don't have it in cars or elevators or similar enclosed spaces where I have some control. The only other places I experience claustrophobia are in a dense crowd of people and in a medical device such as a scanner(MRIs are out of the question).
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#28
03-12-2006, 09:44 PM
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Re: Fear of Flying
If working on one's fear of crashing is ineffective, one can try working directly on one's fear of death. That has helped significantly with some of my anxieties. Something else that has on occasion helped: Ativan. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
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