I have had a fear of flying in one form or another for as long as I remember and eleven years ago I tackled it head on with BA's fear of flying course. It really was like a magic cure and I waltzed to Vegas a few months later without a flicker and the same year flew in a four-seater plane bouncing over clouds down to Devon. For some reason, with me, it obviously had a shelf-life however, and slowly but surely the anxiety crept, (and then hurtled), back.
We had an amazing time in France this year and in fact are going back next summer. However, I don't want myself, and, even more than that, my family, to be limited on where we go, by only going to places that you can travel to by boat/bus/car/train!
So when Daddy-O started making noises about a big birthday present holiday, I decided that the Caribbean would be more temperate in April than Clacton and so I had better have another shot at the course!
I booked in a couple of months ago for today and then managed to convince my wing-woman that she really wanted to come with me. Sam is equally as terrified but for completely different reasons. We decided it was a good opportunity to make a weekend of it, (our husbands go to the Stone Roses together, we go to Gatwick); and got way too excited about heading off to an airport on a train on a rainy day in November. Sam and I are good at making the best of stuff; we get excited about a half an hour kid-free cup of tea so this was obviously going to be epic. Well, it would have been if the bloody woman hadn't given up drinking for a month! There are so many reasons why we get on so brilliantly together but we do love a good drunken night and are dreadful partners in crime... After two hours on a train together I nearly cracked her but we ended up having a burger in the hotel and then tucked up in our pyjamas at 9pm; me with a bottle of fizz, her with a cuppa; and alternating between watching 'I'm a Celebrity' and watching planes land out of our window.
The morning of the course was done by pilots and the afternoon was by a psychotherapist. I remembered a lot of the technical side of it from last time but it was still good to have a refresh. When it came to questions, I was bored with how obsessed everybody seemed to be with turbulence. Interesting then that the only wobble I had on the flight was for about ten seconds when it got a bit bumpy! Apparently humans aren't meant to fly however and our inner ears can't cope with being jiggled up and down as well as side to side. My question was straight in regarding the change in pilot procedures after the Germanwings bloke flew a plane into a mountain; no point beating about the bush I guess. My wing-woman went a little pale and headed quickly for the sarnies and a cuppa.
I was fascinated by the afternoon and I think it was a different person to the last time I did it. Last time I found out how much safer flying was than being kicked to death by donkey; this time I found out that it is eighteen times safer being on a plane than sitting on your sofa at home! (Feeling a little anxious right now... ;-)) Also, apparently you are six times more likely to be murdered by a family member than to die in a plane crash. (Sebi definitely has the most psychopathic stare; luckily, I'm his favourite.)
I quite enjoyed the flight. It was only forty minutes and it was a slightly fake situation however, so I don't think I am fully cured. A serious improvement though and no panicking; plus I was SOBER! I did decide quite definitely that next time I get on a plane it will not be by going through a special scared-people-security with a label around my neck and curious onlookers gawping and pointing whilst a lot of people in hi-vis jackets treat us like delicate cargo. Also, I would really like to get off the plane somewhere more interesting than Gatwick!
Back to the hotel for a celebratory glass of champagne and a diet coke... (yawn...), then we headed home to share the good news with our loved ones that we could take to the skies once more. So far, the text to my Dad from the train which said: 'Flying course good. Bahamas?', has been a little bit ignored but with a congratulatory 10% discount from BA I'm sure that he will soon see that it would be rude not to!
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