LeeMac

iTrader: (1)

what can i take before going on a plane, i go to pieces, to me its like russian roulette, im going away next week and im in bits already.

No plane crash stuff please, ive imagined that scenario.

Kosy

iTrader: (2)

Go to the airport bar and get absolutly s**t-faced.
With tightened security and a little bit of luck, they might not even let you on the plane at all!

Katana

Just watch castaway (tom hanks). Your fear of flying will disappear.

TopBanana

Ask the doc for some tranquilisers

camk

Don't get pissed, have 2 drinks before you fly, thats enough for Dutch courage. Take a few magazines that you'll enjoy that have loads on piccies(e.g. Car Mag, FHM) . When your driving to the airport, try and be a passenger, in the car concentrate on the amount of bumps and how actually uncomfortable driving in a car is. Its actually more stable in a plane than in a car, its just that you filter it out in a car and watch for it in a plane. Expect the plane to make noises just after takeoff. Gear will come up and flaps will retract, the opposite will happen on landing. Try to get an aisle seat as then you can think of just being on a train or a bus. Really its much safer than you imagine.
I do a minimum 2 European flights per month and up to 6 or 7, i'm in the US every 8 weeks for only 2 or 3 days, after a while you get used to it but even now I still get a few butterflies. However I've only had 1 very minor incident in over 10 years of hectic flying and it was all too quick to get scared about and has in fact been quite re-assuring for me since.
I've had more incidents in my car to and from the airport than in a plane.

Cheers
Cammy

Mice_Elf

"CalmLife" is quite good. You can get it from Boots or places like Holland & Barratt.

AnDy_PaNdY

Morphine might help.

MarkO

I'm flying today. I love flying.

Don't let the fact that it's Friday 13th put you off.

super_si

lol @ marko, My misses takes some herbal stuff.

could find the name if you wanted it.

Si

MarkO

Yeah, but customs might pick up on it, and then he'd be in real trouble.

super_si

its legal

Pete Croney

Statistically, the most dangerous bit of the trip will be the car journey to and from the airport. If you make it to the airport alive, you can just relax and enjoy the flight

Don't get drunk at the airport (speaks from the experience of having to buy another flight home from Nice!!).

^Qwerty^

A few years ago, we had just took off, like 5 seconds airborne from Verona airport and the plane got struck by lightning.....

That was interesting to say the least

More stable than driving.... I've been out my seat once or twice in turbulance, but don't worry about it. Your still statistically more likely to die on the way to the airport in a car?

Nevetas

Last year when I went Warsaw (Poland) my BA flight skidded in Snow (-10) on landing and all the oxygen masks popped out.

It was quite scary, few screams. But we all got free alcohol on the way back to make up for it!

Still, landing makes me slightly nervous now

I try and take sleeping pills to sleep through it all, just think how nice it will be when you actually arrive!

chopper

If you are brave enough, take some flying lessons and learn to fly. Once you can control a small 2 seater aircraft, letting someone else do all the hard work in a bigger, safer machine is a walk in the park... I have friends who conquered their phobia this way.

Brendan Hughes

Come to Lisbon and be a passenger in some of the local taxis.

You will be fighting to get back on that nice safe plane...

MarkO

Flying into London City airport is a bit hairy. I've been doing this every monday for the last 4 weeks, and I still find it unsettling when the pilot chucks the nose forward into a 45-degree dive at the last minute.

Still, on the upside I can see my office from the plane as we come in to land.

Scot123

Take up skydiving.

I suffer from vertigo but still manage to throw myself from small aircraft most weekends....

Oh and edited to say 'Stop being such a whuffo!'

[Edited by Scot123 - 12/13/2002 11:05:25 AM]

paulr

Do what my brother does.He only flies with the top notch airlines,as our uncles a pilot and he reckons some of the cheaper airlines are accidents waiting to happen.Flying junkyards was his phrase.

Good advice i think.

..

MarkO

Just popped out to the bank, and on the way back I noticed that I can't see the top 20 stories of the Natwest tower. I have a feeling my flight this afternoon may be delayed.

carl

Actually, this 'statistically flying is safer than driving' is a load of crap. For sure, it's safer per mile travelled, but that's because (a) on average flights are a lot longer than car journeys and (b) the only really dangerous bits are taking off and landing. If you compare number of accidents against number of flights, it's not statistically safer than driving.

MarkO

Carl - does it make a difference how many people are playing, and whether or not the prize has to be paid out?

I'm not afraid of flying, anyway. It's the hitting the ground bit that scares me. BOOM BOOM!

NeilT

I used to travel abroad each monday returning friday and got through something like 110 flights per year (inc transfers). That was pretty much every week for 3 years.

I used to hate flying too, used to take a good book along and a GBA to keep me busy.

I really dont mind it now, its like anything - you get used to it if you do it enough.

Neil

^Qwerty^

Yah, but you can present stats however you like to get the result you want. Just look at the NHS waiting lists.......

carl

I don't know -- if it's so easy to misrepresent statistics, how come none of the defenders of the "number of tickets bought affects the lottery result" theory could present statistics/analysis to reinforce their arguments?

Pete Croney

Mark

I'm sure City airport has an ILS so the fog won't make any difference... except that on landing the pilots can finish reading today's paper right up to the end of the runway

MarkO

The fog does make a hell of a difference - hence the reason my Monday morning flights have been delayed for 2 weeks out of 4. The first two weeks it was 3 hours and 2 hours delay respectively. It's very common, I'm told, be other people who also do it regularly.

I think it's more of a problem for landing, mainly 'cos they have to come in around the city skyscrapers and probably don't want to risk 'doing a 9/11' by accident into the Natwest tower. I guess with take-off they just climb like hell, so it doesn't matter if they can't see where they're going.

carl

You'll find they they can't use ILS unless there's a certain amount of visibility, depending on the class of ILS fitted at the airport.

The bizarre consequence of this is that if you've got the worst class of ILS, you can only use it when there's good visibility (i.e. when you don't need it)

dsmith

Gibralter is the place to fly to. 90 degree right turn seconds before you land - just when the plane is at its slowest and most unstable . No amount of ILS is going to make that anything other than "**** nipping"

Deano