Are you scared of flying?

[JuliaL]

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I'm not afraid of flying and 20 years ago I was scratching out a living riding submarines. Besides, it's not gravity that kills you...it's the sudden stop.

Kidding aside, I hope you can find a way to overcome your anxiety. if visiting far off places is your goal, there's no more efficient or cost effective means of getting around. Flying is perfectly safe, the statistics should be easy to find. The basis for the 'not designed for flying' argument suddenly disappears if you consider driving, eyeglasses, heart transplants, indoor plumbing, the internet, distorted guitars, the wheel, etc.

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To be honest, flying is quite boring.

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It's like riding a cramped bus after having the privilege of standing in three different lines in order to get an x-ray and rectal exam.

I still do enjoy take-offs and landings and am fond of surveying the countryside on a clear day trying to determine where the fuck I am. The change of topography on any reasonable flight is interesting. Flying at night is a bit different. You have to contort yourself so that your eyes are adjacent to your nipples to get a view of the stars. It's interesting to note how much darkness there is in certain places between towns. The most interesting thing at night is how many planes you can identify at different altitudes and headings. Transoceanic flights are a bit of a bore as far as sightseeing goes, although I'm still transfixed how the whitecaps of waves appear not to move. 

I love flying with my wife on the rare occasions we get to travel together; most of my flying has been for work after leaving the Navy. She reminds me that the experience and actually looking forward to your destination can be fun. 

When I do travel for work, most of my enjoyment comes from the unmolested reading time I get. Like most, I work my ass off and consider flight time 'my time'. I feel sorry for those that travel for business and are now compelled to pay for WiFi. available on many flights, in order to keep clanking away on their laptops as if they never left the office.  


This is probably way more than you bargained for in a response, but despite the fact that the experience can be exciting, mundane and frustrating all at the same time only demonstrates that there'e way too much shit to think about other than gravity.

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You're doing it wrong.

For a decade, my recreational activity of choice was soaring.
A sailplane is rather large in comparison to a motorcycle, but the view is unsurpassed.
Oddly, I am afraid of heights.  I never seem to be able to trust whatever is supporting me or what connects me to that.  Climbing a 15 meter antenna tower with full safety gear leaves me shaking when I return to the ground.
Somehow, sitting in a glider is a completely different experience, simultaneously both more and less involved.
More involved because you are constantly busy, mentally and physically, finding and working lift, navigating and manipulating the controls.  Less because when you are in the zone, the countryside rolls quietly along below like watching Google earth but you know you're not.  I think it was this disconnect that kept fear of injury from becoming real.  And it is only done on beautiful summer days in the country.
I called it my lawn chair in the sky.