Still Not Into Flying the Friendly Skies

A few months ago I wrote about my fear of flying and bulleted the things I imagine going wrong. I flew this past week and it was no better than when I flew in December. In fact it was worse. It was in a smaller plane. You know, if you can drive to your destination in the same amount of time that it takes you to drive to the gargantuan-sized airport, park, get through ticketing, wait around, wait on the tarmac for your plane’s turn to take off, breathe in all the germies on a plane, and deal with FRICKIN turbulence, land and thank God for the plane not crashing, get a rental car, drive, and check into a hotel, I am not seeing the benefit. Seems around here I am the only one who feels this way. At least in the car I get to call my friends and listen to my 80’s music, and pull into a rest stop when I want.

After reaching our altitude, the flight attendants announced to keep seatbelts on the whole time. The turbulence started when they had their beverage cart in the aisle. That was a little helpful to me as I figured if they weren’t strapped in then it must be just another day’s work. In fact to keep myself calm I asked them (as if I had never been on a plane before), “Is this turbulence, and is this normal”? And she stated that yes, due to the size of the smaller plane you feel it more and they are used to it. OK that helped a little. At one point I exhaled through my nose really loud and the young guy next to me turned and looked at me. When he looked away I held my hand out and it was shaking like a leaf. I once went down a water slide with one of my sons. When we got off the ride my hands were shaking. Also, I will not get on a roller coaster if you paid me.

The next day I had to fly back home. The hotel left a USA today paper outside my door. Cover story was about the flight in Buffalo that crashed into a house and how the pilot and co-pilot were “chit-chatting” while less than 10,000 feet and printed their dialogue and details. So I read it. Not like that helped the anxiety or anything. Then I noticed the crew on my plane was also a middle-aged man and co-pilot was a female about 26 years old. I know it is not right to be discriminatory, but I want the pilots to be ex-Air Force pilots. Experienced pilots, please do not retire early!

When I walked in the door my middle son hurried over to me, wrapped his arms around me and hugged me for a long time (we both were glad to a return of the same routine). My youngest was in line right behind him to do the same. That is on my list of the best things I’ve felt all year.