My headline of this post sounds like that of a personals advertisement!
The majority of my time spent on FT is reading and I have not been posting much, but I come to you today looking for the advice of fellow frequent travellers. I apologise for the lengthy post but, if you have some time, I ask you give it a read and let me know your thoughts.
I travel a lot. I joke with friends and family that I'm on the road eight days a week. While Delta is my primary airline, I fly approximately 120 domestic segments a year. And I hate flying. I travel for work and love my job. It's a job that I excel at and love doing, truly, but one day I fear I might have to leave my job because of an inability to travel on planes anymore.
My fear is one not that the plane will crash, or one of terrorism, it's honestly the fear that some bad turbulence, "drop," or something like the recent Southwest flight will happen to my flight and I will have a heart attack and die while the plane will recover and land without any other injuries. I've been in some flights that I consider bad but know many or most of you have been in worse!
I remember a flight from DTW to LGA last year during which we flew through a strong thunderstorm. The storm was too wide to fly around it and the pilots warned the passengers that it would be rough and rough it was. I was sitting in first class, my head down, arms around my legs to prevent me from bouncing around and the woman next to me had her nails in my arm equally scared as the plane was bouncing, rocking, and the constant - 1 per second - flashes of lightning through the cabin had me praying for my life! While I'm taking a crude pulse reading [with my two fingers and counting the number of beats in ten seconds and multiplying by six] I noticed my pulse was over 180 bpm while I look over across the aisle and see someone working on their laptop, holding it down with their palms, intently focused on the Excel document he was working on.
As a side note, I'm a baby with a lot of things. I can't do roller coasters or those free fall things at carnivals and I'm sure most of my fear comes from (a) the lack of knowledge about what's going on outside or in the cockpit and (b) simply not being in control of the plane myself.
Now, I have a system before I board the plane.
1. I log in to FlightAware, even from my mobile, and track my flight prior to take off so I can see (a) exactly how long the flight is, (b) how long it's taken the same flight to travel in previous days, and (c) the weather radar for the ride to my destination.
2. I pull up USA Today's current weather map which shows pressures and fronts. I feel this gives me an adequate ability to predict turbulence. I recently travelled from PIT to PHL in between two strong, converging weather fronts and it definitely jarred me.
3. If the two previous things lead me to believe there's turbulence, I will search Twitter for tweets near me with "turbulence" to gauge what people are writing about their flights.
4. Take a Xanax, which usually doesn't do much to calm my nerves but does keep my heart rate a little more managable.
5. Pray.
But lately, it's become more stressful. After reading about the Southwest flight and even seeing the jolt those Comair passengers received after their CRJ was thrown by that A380 collision in JFK (looked akin to an auto crash in the video), I've gotten more nervous about flying and need some tips to stay sane in the air.
I won't fly on prop planes or E135/145s. I'll avoid CRJ200s wherever possible. I will rebook and not fly, even at penalty, if it involves flying through thunderstorms. I will only sit over the wings or in the front of the plane. I'll avoid drinking so that I don't have to use the washroom. I've read those "fear of flying" websites. I think about travelling on a bus while in flight. I look at the wings, which are supposed to give you a sense of balance, even if they're being flexed. It's bad!
I'd love to hear all your thoughts and suggestions! I almost wish there was a way to "put yourself out" for the duration of a flight (aside from drinking excessively of course)!
Hold all the criticisms if you would, I full acknowledge I'm a big baby.
