I am not quite sure when it happened but somewhere along the line I have developed a fear of flying. A major fear. I 110% blame Dan for this fear. (Sorry hunny!)
Dan is an excellent pilot, and it should be noted that the ONLY time I am NOT afraid to fly is on his airplane while he is in the cockpit. I know how he conducts himself and how dedicated he is to his job and to the safety of everyone on board. I am completely comfortable when he is flying. Dare I say, I enjoy it.
It’s others I am worried about. The ones who play on their computers and sleep and decorate the cockpit with stuffed animals and toys. WTF?! The only reason I know about any of this is because of Dan. He is so dedicate and can’t believe that some people do this. But all of these “honey, you will never believe what I read today…” stories have developed into my HUGE fear.
My (near) hyperventilating every time I sit down in an airline seat, fear. My last flight I almost had a real life panic attack, fear. My “my life is going to end in this giant tube-shaped thing,” fear. Get it yet?
Today is Friday the 13th and I am FLYING today. So in honor of that, I thought I would make a list of my fears. My irrational fears. My completely illogical fears. But, my fears none the less.
1. I am afraid that the plane won’t be going fast enough and we will not even get off the ground. Causing us to crash
2. I am afraid that while going up we will be at too steep an incline and a gust of wind will turn the plane on its back (see… irrational!)
3. On that note… we will just keep going up and will never level out. Right into space. (You can imagine how much Dan laughs at a few of these “fears”)
4. Pilots are asleep, drunk or now ON THEIR COMPUTERS (WTF?) while they should be paying attention to flying the HUGE metal thing through the air at hundreds of miles per hour.
5. That we will get too close to a plane in front of us and the force coming out from that plane (forget the name) will flip our plane over
6. Some much needed piece of the plane will. fall. off.
7. If we are landing in Atlanta… afraid we are too low and going to hit a tree
8. Going too fast at landing…can’t stop
9. One word… turbulence. It’s not fun and I don’t enjoy it, especially when the pilot tells you to “brace” for it. I almost puked.
I know that the good pilots outweigh the bad ones. The majority of Dan’s friends are pilots and I would be 100% confident in them. Unfortunately, they can't drop their schedule to come fly the plane I am going to be on (Oh, that would be so nice). And Dan can't fly me wherever I want to go on that nice private jet (something about costing thousands of dollars an hour...blah blah blah). So I am forced to put my faith in two total strangers. Strangers who I hope have 1/2 the competence and ability of my darling husband. Strangers, some of whom should perhaps find a nice desk job instead of a job that puts hundreds of peoples’ lives in their hands on a daily basis.
If I am on a plane that goes down, I know where I am going and it is just my time. This fear will not keep me from flying. This weekend a plane is taking me to see my husband (who is at recurrent training in Dallas this week), mom, brothers, dad and I just found out my Aunt Gina will be there, too. It is going to be a wonderful weekend and I won’t let a fear keep me from doing anything I want to do.
So wish me luck. I’m leaving on a (Delta) jet plane (with two safe, wonderful, competent pilots… hopefully!).
Happy Birthday Harry and Charlie! I had so much fun hanging out with you two this weekend and can’t wait ‘til we can do it more often again! Love you both!
