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Leavin on a jet plane.... and scared as hell.
galenblade
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My employer is sending me on a business trip next week. Hotel, food, all expenses paid. Including my flight. I am scared to death of flying. Like, I'm not sure if I'll even be able to get on the plane once I get into the airport. I'm dreading this a great deal, to the point where I'm beginning to lose sleep over it.
It's strange, because A) I've flown before, multiple times, and for much longer flights than this 2-hour one, and
I know all the statistics that say that it's much more dangerous to actually drive to a place than take a plane there. But still, I have this irrational fear that won't dissipate no matter how much logic I throw at it.
So what I'm asking for are ways to cope with this. I don't think I'll have time to get tranquilizers (unless there's over-the-counter ones I haven't heard of), as a friend suggested, and the flight's too short (and too early in the morning) to drink myself into a stupor to not experience it.
Barring that, if anyone knows a fairly decently fast way to get from New York to Lexington, Kentucky that doesn't involve flying, I'm all ears. I've checked out Amtrak, and I'd literally have to give up a day on either end to travel for 18 hours, which is damn inconvenient.
All comments appreciated.
It's strange, because A) I've flown before, multiple times, and for much longer flights than this 2-hour one, and
I know all the statistics that say that it's much more dangerous to actually drive to a place than take a plane there. But still, I have this irrational fear that won't dissipate no matter how much logic I throw at it.So what I'm asking for are ways to cope with this. I don't think I'll have time to get tranquilizers (unless there's over-the-counter ones I haven't heard of), as a friend suggested, and the flight's too short (and too early in the morning) to drink myself into a stupor to not experience it.
Barring that, if anyone knows a fairly decently fast way to get from New York to Lexington, Kentucky that doesn't involve flying, I'm all ears. I've checked out Amtrak, and I'd literally have to give up a day on either end to travel for 18 hours, which is damn inconvenient.
All comments appreciated.
galenblade on
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Bring a DS or something to get your mind off of it. What has got you so freaked out about this, anyhow? What's changed between the last time you flew and now?
I'll have my DS to be sure, that may help. Maybe picking up a new game would help....
I'm not entirely sure why I'm scared now, which is part of the reason it's bugging me. The only thing I can think of is the last flight I was on was a little dinky turboprop that twisted in the wind quite remarkably. But I'm going to be on an actual jet this time out, so that shouldn't be an issue.
Like a super sonic jet? Halfway aroudn the world in 5 hours or something?
It WOULD be possible to drink yourself into a stupor if you wanted - the lower cabin pressure means that alcohol is absorbed more easily, so it doesn't take quite as long to get smashed. Picking up some game you've really been wanting to play for the DS is a great idea to distract yourself. For the record, one of my friends is terrified of flying, and she swears by listening to an audiobook with her eyes closed.
Granted, those were for flying from Canada to Florida and back again.... But stil, most unpleasurable...
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I'd recommend it for anti-anxiety though, especially if you're not on it already.
No reason to overdo it, just help you get over "the hump". Besides, once the plane takes off your work is done.
If you're really that bad, talk to your doctor and see what he recommends. He may prescribe something that'll either knock you out or at least make you loopy enough not to care.
Honestly though, it sounds like you had a bad experience with a tiny little plane (those even make me nervous, and I'm flown so many times that it's routine to me) and once you've flown on a big commercial airliner and realize just how fucking boring it is, you'll feel a lot better about it. Bring a book or a DS to distract you and think of it as a free couple hours to get some serious reading/gaming done.
I have to take Dramamine/Bonine (Bonine is gentler, and comes in reasonably tasty chewable tablets, unlike Dramamine which taste like dried plague-jerky) because I get motion sick at everything, and I think that helps sedate me just a bit (but not enough to knock me out, since my flights are usually pretty short like yours).
If nothing else, just don't think about it too much. I just check myself in -- that's step one. Then I'll wait around at the gate -- as far as my consciousness knows, that's the last step. Read a trashy magazine (Cosmo, Maxim, whatever's your pleasure)! Then you just get herded down the gangplank and there's no turning back.
I'd say chew some pungent gum (cinnamon, fancy Orbit flavors) as well, though it may just be my quirk -- I HATE the smell of jet fuel + stale recycled air (i.e. airplane smell) more than anything, so if I can avoid smelling, I'm way better off (maybe I'll try smelling salts next time).
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I assume you have, but being that it's only a two hour flight, have you asked about driving instead? It'd be a long drive, but if you're a nervous wreck, perhaps worth it.
edit: I'm an idiot and missed the last bit. Yeah, New York to Lexington is about an 11-12 hour drive, it's long, but it's not terrible. Trains, oddly enough, almost always take longer than driving.
Driving the distance might help with the anxiety, but flying is still safer than driving. :P
Seems like it would be better for the OP to find a way to feel better about it and reduce his already slim chances of catastrophe by flying.
Um, it sounds like that's it? I mean, I never really had issues flying either (other than my mom's worrying making me a little worried), but after the first time I flew on a small-ish jet (stupid St. Louis and its lack of big flights) I absolutely didn't want to fly again on a plane like that... and that was a reasonably smooth ride, I would probably swear off flying for a while if it had to go through serious weather
Unfortunately there's not much you can do for something that distance... I used to take Amtrak between Boston - NY to avoid flying, but there it was about a wash time-wise with security, for anything longer the time isn't going to scale well, and Greyhound would probably take even longer.
Close your eyes while you chill on the tarmac. And just leave your iPod on the whole flight.
That whole thing about not being able to have your iPod on during take off and landing is total bullshit.
Also, what helped me a lot when ever i was freaked out about flying, was sitting down and being like, look, these things are designed to fly me from a to b. Hundreds of thousands of engineering hours devoted to keeping me safe as I fly this thing.
Also, I can imagine how you could be freaked out when you flew on the little plane, cause most people are not used to having planes move a lot. But anything that you feel on airliner is no big deal. What used to freak me out was when the pilot would throttle down, it would feel like you are falling a bit, but thats what supposed to happen. The further I get in my aerospace classes, the better I feel because i kinda know whats going on. Trust me, anything that you feel on a plane is legit, and when it comes to bouncing around, the plane has been designed for much more than that.
Last time I took a flight, we had to get something replaced before it took off, and someone asked a flight attendant if it was going to be safe, and the flight attendant actually kinda made fun of him saying like no were gonna put you one something that isnt safe. I asked the pilot about it afterwards, and he was like whatever, it was no big deal, it has 3 or so redundant systems to back it up, honestly I would have just taken off but i had to follow FAA regs. He blew me off for even thinking that something was not safe.
Just leave the ipod on and close your eyes and you'll drift off to sleep.
While it's not likely to bring down the plane, it's really not a good idea to leave your electronics on. http://www.airnig.co.uk/emi.htm
data from the mid eighties and an article on the use of radio transmitters.
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1411343
There are no FAA regulations on it
Also, an iPod doesn't emit anything that can cause interference due to FCC regs (Part 15).
Airlines don't want your iPod out and such because they want to you to be paying attention and they dont want a loose CD player becoming a few hundred mile accident incase of a projectile.
I wouldn't worry about it.
I'm probably going to get infracted for derailing the thread for this shit too