Hi there

i have taken a long time to think and write a post here and hope that it will get answered. I have a very bad fear of flying and I am not even sure when it started as I have flown many times before alone with no problems at all. I am originally from Mauritius and married to Danish and we are settled here. But I still have to go to Mauritius very year to visit family and friends. I always travel with my spouse as he is of great comfort to me. I am flying to Mauritius again on 15 November 2009 but this time I have to fly alone with my 18 month old daughter as my husband only has 10 days holidays and he will be joining us later and we will coming back together. Since I booked the flights 3 weeks ago, I havent been sleeping well and I have this constant feeling in my stomach (anxiety and fear) and I am close to cancelling the flights and fly with my husband instead on 11 December just so that we can be together. This is not fair at all to all those waiting to see me for a longer time in Mauritius as I have not been there in 5 years.
I am very scared of take offs and most importantly turbulence.
We lived in New Zealand for 2 years and we have had very bad turbulence everytime we flew back to UK via singapore. Once we even landed in typhoon conditions in Hong Kong. In these situations, I cannot even breathe and my heart just starts pumping a million miles an hour. It is so embarassing. I feel scared at every movement that I feel. Now this is a 12 hour flight and to make things a little bit more, I am travelling with a child for the first time alone and I am not sure at all how I can cope. My husband is encouraging me a lot and so much so that I have booked myself on the fear of flying course scheduled for the 8th November at Gatwick. I have been told to contact special assistance so that on my flight day (15th November- flying with Virgin) I can be taken extra care of- but I find this very embarassing as this is an irrational fear but I cannot help it and why would a crew take time off to calm me when everyone else seems to fine- would the crew be bothered by that?
I have read all the testimonials etc on this website and I am just hoping that I can have a turbulence free and panick attack free flight on the day...if I take that flight.
How can I be helped really?
Thanks for taking the time to respond and help

Anu

Hello Anu,

Thank you so much for taking the time to post. First of all, as you can tell from this site, you are not alone. There are a lot of people that feel just like you out there. So, good news is that you are a normal person. Another myth is that people are ok around you. That is not always true. Some people are very good at hiding their fear. Plus, some people are using strategies to mask the extent of it.

one of the truisms around fear is that we turn inward. We focus on internal feelings and processes so we are not so aware of what is going on around us.

You can be helped and all is not lost. I get hundreds of emails and postcards every month from people telling me that they thought that they would never fly and now they are.

Take care

Paul

Dear Anu, I did a fear of flying course in November and I understand completely how you're feeling. My fear of flying was destroying holidays and making the whole experience terrifying.
The course is fantastic. For the first time in 20 years I flew ina plane without valium. The virgin crew are excellent and nothing is too much trouble for them. I will forever be grateful for the help they gave me. I'm off to Cuba in March and for the first time ever am not terrified now it's booked!!!

Seriously, they can and will help you. They are excellent at what they do. Give it a try - what do you have to lose?

Hope this helps.

One more question that I realized that I dont know the answer too. What is flying speed for a hang glider. How fast does a large wing need in order to generate flight?

Hello again

Very simple answer actually.

The size of the wing and the speed of an aircraft (of any type) is sufficient to maintain lift. Everything is worked out with lift in mind. So, no matter what size of aircraft - huge or small - they have the right dimensions to sustain lift.

Interestingly, gliders have larger wings than they need for their weight as they have no engines so need to sustain lift that way.

Best wishes

Paul