johndoe,i am really really really trying to,thinking hard about efes beer for 2weeks ,cant wait . have got a few hurdles to get over 1st though.

cheers karen

Hi Laingey, Just wondering how many of the damn tabs are you actually taking at the moment. Dont want to take so much that on the day they wont do anything for you! I know its easy for me to say but just keep telling yourself you ENJOY flying. Please try to look out of the window, it stops that woosy feeling you get and makes you realise you can actually see things that dont seem TOO FAR AWAY! We witnessed planes taking off from Heathrow whilst flying over, saw the London Eye, Big Ben and so forth, it was a beautiful view, and I must say I felt so much closer to the ground. It really does help. Sue.x

hi again laingy.. i do understand what you mean(see my previous posts),.i still have the tee-shirt,.but have got much better i now accept if i want to go somewhere special then i have to fly.........good luck and god bless........john-doe xxxxxxxxxxxxx

hi all,thanks for thoughts,ive been up thinking these thoughts since 5am this morning pottering around,trying not to take a tab yet,suebar dont worry im experienced now so i no what im doing.(if you like).lol.joking.
just eating cigs as well to help.
WINDOWS DONT DO AT ALL,fear of heights you see,cant climb a ladder either for that reason.dont do looking down unless its my head is in crash position.lol.im sure you all having good laugh at me cos all this sounds ridiculus and it is i no,but cant help myself.
safest way to travel.YEP it sure is.leaving TERMINAL 1 ,lets hope so !!!!!
that word is bothering more this year as well.
no doubt i,ll be talking to you all later.
thanks folks for your support.

karen

hi all

i would just like to say a very big thank you to all of you who helped me prior to my holiday !!!
i didn't feel half as scared and nervous of flying this year like i have in previous years !
although we were transfered from luton to gatwick going and was delayed about 4 hours and then to my shock flying home we were on a doubled aisle a300 plane which had 3x3x3 seating !
i must say though the take off on the larger plane IMO was alot smoother and quieter than normal !
coming home my husband did have a quick chat with one of the cabin crew due to being on a much larger plane, he found her very calming and she did come over and speak to him once we were airbourne !

thanks once again

lou x

i dont have a fear of flying but when we fly to goa i get so fed up that now i take a sleeping .after take off and meals been served ,,i sleep like a baby and awake just before landing .helps with the boredom,and stops you watch checking to see youve only been flying 10 minutes more since you last looked xxxx jan

I used to be ok with flying but as I started to fly more regularly (due to moving abroad) I also got more and more nervous. So last year, prior to my very first long-haul flight to the States, I had a hypnotherapy session.

Well, since then I no longer even think of my fear of flying. I think once you overcome the initial fear, then it's easy to be distracted and you forget about it.

Oh, and during the said flight to LV, the pilot from Delta gave out the details of his website on the tannoy - http://www.mypilot.org - it contains lots of useful information on flying which might reassure the nervous ones.

Happy fliying!

There is a programme called 'Fear of Flying' on channel 4 this evening at 8p.m. They showed clips of it on Richard and Judy Last night. It shows something like 40 people who all had different reasons for their fear of flying, and the different self help techniques that can be used to overcome the fear. It stated that anyone with a fear of flying should watch the programme and perhaps adopt some of the techniques for themselves, they are supposed to be really easy to do. The man who showed them the different techniques apparently had a 95% success rate with this group.

Hopefully some of you will read this post in time and be able to watch the programme.

Regards Jackie

Watched the programme because I am really nervous flyer. Must say, my stomach was in my throat, felt ill for all 40 of them, and was a nervous wreck just sitting at home watching . I must try to remember all the tips when I fly to Tenerife in 3 weeks,but my stomach has still not settled down since the programme. Having said that I have to take a domestic flight tomorrow which I find even more scary than flying on the bigger planes, and then I have to fly back home next week. It is for my work and I dread it. My friend from work will think I've lost the plot when I start pulling my ear and tapping my head!

Digby

I didn't get a chance to watch the programme but was it as they implied on Richard and Judy? Was the techniques something that you can actually do for yourself. and more importantly do you think they would help?

Regarding the pulling of your ear and tapping your head. As I said I didn't get to watch the programme but at least if you see others on the plane doing it you'll know who did get to watch it.

Hope it works for you when you fly to Tenerife. Let us know

Good Luck

Regards Jackie

Hiya,

My mum suffers from this and i did some research for her to try and find stuff that will help her (we are trying to get her to fly from USA to London!)

I found a part of a taxi website that was quite good:

http://www.airport-taxis.com/FearOfFlying/Airport-Taxis-Worried-About-Flying.htm

and

http://www.fearofflyingstore.co.uk/

I Will let you know if we get her on our UK vacation!

Salutations

Andy

Hope that helps. I bought a book from there!

Andy. have you read through this thread? if not you will find advice from many including flight professional's, well worth reading

For anyone who uses Bach Rescue Remedy - you can now buy pastilles - not sure how they taste but it's a good idea if you don't want to have your liquids confiscated at security.

Liquids are still allowed as long as they are less than 100ml, which the Bach remedies are.

luci

they are rubbish,didnt do a thing for me,i wouldnt waste your money,so many people said to me o have a drink you,ll be fine.that i cannot do.
i still stick by my tabs from the doc.they really good,helps me and believe me i need help.hehhe.
cheers laingy

What a fantastic thread.

Most of my fears have been tackled here, eg the silence a few minutes after take off etc, but I just wondered
a - how safe are we in turbulence
b - I use Onurair mostly, do you think the Turkish Pilots are as highly trained as our British Ones?

I like many of you watch the flight attendants faces, I tend to relax a little once I see them walking around. Also last year, end of September a short while after take off from Cardiff, the turbulence started, after an hour it was still bumpy, quite bad when the Pilot announced we were going to hit bad turbulence for the next 20 minutes. My immediate thought was, "has the last hour or so not been bad?".....anywya, we landed safely and I thought no more about it, until the day we were coming home. I felt utterly sick and very nervous. No sooner had we taken off when the turbulence started again, I was saying things like, "Oh god, not again, please" and I was reduced to tears. Thankfully it was not as bad as the outward trip, and only lasted about half an hour.

I am heading back again in 4 weeks, April 29th and already feel the butterflies starting, but reading these posts have helped somewhat. I think Ross is brilliant and wish he was coming with me

It never puts me off flying, because I love my holidays, but just work myself up into a state.

Mary x

b - I use Onurair mostly, do you think the Turkish Pilots are as highly trained as our British Ones?

hi Mary glad you took some solace from this thread... your question b is a difficult one to answer.. why? because you do not know the nationality of the pilot in many cases i have flown on Cyprus airways with German pilots on British charters with Turkish/dutch/Spanish pilots so its almost impossible to answer

ALL are well trained, all aircraft flying in or out of EEC countries should have all passed the same quality/safety exams and, above all, as has been said many times.. the aircrew have lives and families and will not take risk's that may jeopardies their own safety

You are correct! The mind has just started to go into over-drive.

I actually do feel better after reading this thread. Even been telling my other half about the reduction in noise being due to the lack of thrust needed after take-off. He seemed impressed

Mary x

For anyone interested, Simon Lowe has uploaded his fantastic video coverage of the Thomsonfly 757-200 bird strike incident at Manchester from Sunday 29th April. click here. The incident occured when 2 Herons flew infront of the aircraft just as it rotated on runway 06L and were ingested in to the starboard Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofan. They were heading for Lanzarote. Although engines are tested to withstand bird strikes, 2 birds the size of Herons will have done considerable damage to the engine resulting in this incident. As you can see from the video, it was handled very professionally by all concerned.

Alhough bird srikes do happen from time to time, I've witnessed a couple, this is at the extreme end of the scale. If anyone has any doubts about how safe flying in this day and age is, please watch this video. You're in very safe hands.

Darren