

To fasten your seatbelt, insert the flap into the buckle - Oompa
http://30dayflight.com/day11.html

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blhack
I'll share something my mom said to me when I was scared of flying as a kid:

"They pilot doesn't want to die either".

That has more-or-less destroyed any fear I have of flying.

~~~
Jasber
I agree.

I was recently 4 hours into a flight from Chicago to Germany on a large
double-decker Airbus when I started smelling smoke on the plane.

Suddenly I see flight attendants running to the back of the plane with fire
extinguishers. Other flight attendants are running to the front of the plane
with bottles of liquor.

The captain comes over the intercom: "Flight attendants, prepare for emergency
landing"

Over the next 5 minutes I watch how different people react to the scenario.
Some people grab hands, some start to pray, some people just close their eyes.
Others start demanding up-to-the-minute information about our situation.

Without warning, we hit the ground. In a made-for-the-movies moment, the
entire plane erupts in applause.

The rest of my trip I was a little nervous getting back on planes. However,
the one thing that helped me keep things in perspective was something the
flight-attendant said during our emergency landing:

"I have a husband in Germany. I don't want to die either. We're doing
everything we can."

Simple and rational. It always works for me too.

FYI, the smoke turned out to be a coffee maker--and after several hours stuck
on the tarmac in Newfoundland, we were on our way again.

~~~
psnj
It's in situations like that where you see flight attendants doing their
"real" jobs.

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davidw
Ugh, I know exactly how that guy feels. I hate flying with an abiding passion
(indeed, I view their 30 day trip as about as much fun as hitting myself in
the nuts with a hammer over the course of a month). It is completely and
totally irrational, but there's not much to be done about it. Drinking helps,
some, but they don't serve drinks during takeoff, which is the worst part (I
usually manage to relax a bit after about a half an hour of total panic).

The "can't get off" part is really important too.

~~~
lutorm
I don't hate "flying". I went halfway to getting a pilot's license just
because I've always wanted to learn how to fly (for real, not in simulators).

It's not the _flying_ that makes me hate flying on airliners; it's being
locked up in a cramped, uncomfortable, jetlag-inducing space that makes me
feel like a pig on a CAFO, where I always emerge to my destination with a
splitting headache due to an old neck injury.

I don't generally have claustrophobia, but I'm sure that also has something to
do with people's feelings about flying on airliners.

~~~
ErrantX
I dont mind flying at all - but sometimes the claustrophobia hits me and I
immediately have a sudden vision of wrenching open the door and falling
thousands of feet.

It passes in a few seconds but it's pretty scary!

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mattmaroon
His fear of private aircraft is comparatively rational. The big commercial
carriers have a far better safety record.

~~~
gcheong
But he'd probably have his choice of seats.

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jyellin
People often spend a significant amount of time worrying about what tomorrow
will bring and in turn negatively affect today. This is a dilemma that we all
face on a regular basis. We worry about hitting our quota because if not, we
will potentially lose our job; we dread an upcoming family event because we
are going to be forced to spend time with a "long lost" relative; we are
concerned about going on vacation because we have not kept to our diet; we
worry that our start-up will not get funded and we will be forced to work at a
corporate giant; we fear an upcoming airline flight and do not enjoy our
vacation; and we are troubled that a loved one, (or even ourselves), is going
to die because of a recent diagnosis of a terminal disease. All of these
worries, dreads, concerns, and troubles lead to what I like to call "F-e-
a-r"or in other words, False Evidence Appearing Real. I am sure we will agree
that we often worry about future events that never turn out to be as bad as we
originally thought. So in the time from the initial thought, up and until the
event, we have "destroyed" a period of time that could have been significantly
more enjoyable. Now there are cases that are inevitable, like the eventual
death as a result of a terminal disease, but even with these occurrences, the
death component is going to occur when your time is finished on earth, but the
life element is up to you. Remember, F-e-a-r is only False Evidence Appearing
Real.

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ulf
Fear is a really interesting thing... If you can control people's fears, you
pretty much control everything. Currently on display in US healthcare
"debate"...

~~~
jrockway
Off-topic right-leaning political banter? Ah yes, it's HN on Friday night.

~~~
ulf
Not at all. That was just the first thing that came to mind. Generally you
could say that every major decision in politics rises and falls with people's
fears. This was just a placative example, and not the least right-leaning.

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fiaz
The preservation of one's own life is perhaps everybody's primary goal in
life, and so there are many excellent reasons for somebody to avoid risks so
that this goal is repeatedly achieved. But such a life (devoid of risk) is
stagnant and hindered. I wonder if this is the difference between living and
merely existing.

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gcheong
On the concept of control, one thing that has been effective for me in helping
me get over my fear of heights it trying not to control my fear. It's sounds
strange, but the more I try to control the fear the worse it gets but if I
just let it come and don't get caught up in the tug of war of my anxious
thoughts and feelings but force myself to carry on regardless of my thoughts
or feelings (which I know to be irrational anyway) I find that the fear tends
to fade on its own.

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lazyant
I found this about Disney World's sound more fascinating:
<http://30dayflight.com/day10.html>

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brown9-2
I don't understand the confusion that someone who is supposedly rich would fly
JetBlue.

They _are_ pretty sweet as far as flying goes.

~~~
tomjen2
Yeah, but flying private means no TSA, no queues and you decide when to fly.

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blhack
The other thing about flying:

I cannot even possibly describe to anybody who hasn't spent time in the
captain's chair how good of a job the FAA and the aircraft manufacturers do
planning for _EVERYTHING_.

You practically have to ask for clearance, then follow a checklist, when you
scratch your beard.

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Raphael
I hate warped statistics. A probability is not "2000% lower". That would imply
a -1900% chance. I suppose he meant that the probability of dying in a flight
is 1/20 of in a car, although I cannot be sure.

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geeko
"More than half of fliers report some level of anxiety before boarding a
plane, and 5% of the population refuses to fly at all."

Where does this data come from?

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tptacek
How are they engaging people on these flights? What's the opening line? Are
they recording them? I'm really interested in how they're pulling this off.

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rms
I wonder why he doesn't take anti-anxiety medication before flights. It's a
straightforward enough solution.

~~~
davidw
I tried that, and it had _zero_ effect. Then I had another one, and something
to drink, and _that_ worked, but was probably not a bright idea. I did manage
to sleep just a little bit, which was a first for me, flying. I was still
terrified for the first half hour, though, so I wouldn't really say the anti-
anxiety stuff had any effect at all.

~~~
rms
Oh, they work for me. They mainly work on the physical side effects of anxiety
-- the muscle tension, pain in the chest, etc. I need to also take a melatonin
to be able to sleep.

The mental fear is still up to you. Usually I just embrace it and take the
moment of takeoff as a time to reflect on my own mortality -- if you can come
to terms with the chance of your early, violent death then there is no need to
panic.

~~~
gcheong
It's been theorized and shown in various studies that a lot of a drug
effectiveness due to the placebo effect, so it may be that if you don't think
it will help you it's likely not to.

~~~
cschep
Yeah. I have a relative who is deathly afraid of flying and she has tried
taking anxiety meds. She said they just make want to talk to strangers more
about how scared she is. ha ha. It breaks down normal social barriers but she
is still deathly afraid. I think she'd rather try to keep it to herself as
much as possible.

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gcb
it's not irrational. it's fear off lack of control for ones live.

I do _not_ know how to fly an airplane. I do not know the commander.

I _do_ know how to pilot a bike. I ride a bike in heavy traffic at high
speeds.

Despite the death rate for the bike case is higher, i crap myself on an
airplane. because i'm not in control.

~~~
ulf
This concept of control is a _very_ irrational one. Of course you steer and
pedal your bike by yourself. But by taking part in traffic you give up at
least as much control as flying by plane. Some guy hitting you with his car
from behind is not exactly in your control.

~~~
psnj
Agree.

When I was getting my pilot's license, I learned to be hyper-aware of another
airplane that was less than say 1000 feet from me. But the strangest part of
those lessons was getting back into my car afterward and getting onto the 417,
where I was a couple of feet away from other cars, also going 75mph. I was
_completely_ at these other drivers' mercy: I had effectively no time to react
to them, and knew from experience that lots of drivers are just plain awful
(and this was really before you'd see people driving while texting with one
hand and changing their kids' DVD in the other.)

It was very, very scary. Total loss of control — far more than in an airplane,
where to a much greater degree if things go sideways, it was probably your
fault anyway.

The other interesting thing about the scary drive was how long it stayed
scary: maybe ten minutes, tops. After that — business as usual. Didn't even
think about it.

It's interesting what we can get used to.

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keltecp11
I'm really impressed with the look and feel of the site. Good luck guys.

