Nope, it’s purely the act of a 600,000 pound metal object defying gravity (and me being out of control of my personal safety) that completely freaks me out.

Now, I wouldn’t consider myself a road warrior by any stretch of the imagination, but I have done my fair share of flying.  It used to be a fun endeavor.  Then it turned into a mundane experience and a convenience.  Now even the mention of flying somewhere is enough to make my heart race and my palms sweat.  You’d also think I’d be used to it by now.  Nuh-uh.

A lot of people ask me why I am afraid to fly, especially since this is something that developed over time.  Easy enough.  I was flying domestic flights in India and our plane slid off the end of the runway.  That’s what did it.  Especially because we basically just turned around in the dirt and headed back to the terminal.  No explanations, no apologies.  Like it was an everyday occurrence.  I was out of control of my situation and there was nothing I could do about it.

Since then, I’ve flown more times then I can count.  The funny thing is that I am typically fine once we’ve been in the air for awhile.  The things that really get me panicky are take off, turbulence and landing.  But I guess that is pretty much the whole flight these days, huh? :-)

I’ve tried a number of things to reduce my anxiety like reading up on how planes actually fly.  I figured knowing more about the physics and mechanics behind flights would help out me in control of my surroundings.  No dice.  I’ve also tried various relaxation methods, sitting in certain places on the plane, and now I have a whole ritual that I have to do when I fly.  I feel like one of those freaky superstitious baseball players, but whatever works right?

The worst thing about people finding out about my flight anxiety is the things they say that are supposed to be reassuring.  There’s the tried and true, “flying is safer then driving”.  Then there’s the astute, “planes just don’t fall out of the sky”.  Ah and the ever comforting, “well, if you’re going down, you’re going down and there’s not much you can do about it”.  Here’s the most bizarre and my favorite of the moment, “you have a greater chance of being killed by a donkey then crashing in a plane.”  Yeah thanks for that advice, Jacko.  Really puts things in perspective for me!

Any advice for this fearful flyer?  Other then above mentioned cliché’s I’d love to hear what you’ve done to calm you’re fears. 

Oh, and I know this is pretty off topic, so we’ll return to our regularly scheduled posting tomorrow :-)

zoë