IT'S WEDNESDAY - HAVE YOU TRIED THE CHAT YET?

Every Wednesday night, from 9 PM until 11 PM Eastern time, Lisa and
I host a chat at:

http://www.fearofflying.com/chat.shtml

(or just go to www.fearofflying.com and click on the "chat" button)

Usually it is about half regular participants and half first timers. It is a
great place to get free help. It is also very comforting to find out others
feel just the same as you do. And you can ask others how they are
doing with flying using SOAR techniques or what they have learned
free.

==========

A FEW HAVE ALREADY MADE A RESOLUTION TO BEAT FLIGHT ANXIETY
THIS YEAR

It isn't easy to make the first step, but Lisa and I will help. All it takes is
a call from you (or maybe an email). We can talk it over. Sure there are
concerns. But it helps to talk it over.

Lisa is at 800 332-7359
I'm at 877 332-7359

==========

WHAT IF THE WINGS FALL OFF?

Well, they don't. This seaplane accident is unique to Chalk Ocean
Airways.

Patrick sent out a press release on the seaplane crash and said it
was OK to include his comments in this newsletter.

Also, take a look at Patrick's web site at: www.askthepilot.com

In the hierarchy of irritating concerns routinely hurled at pilots by
fearful passengers, none got the eyes rolling faster than this old staple:
"What if the wing breaks off?" I can picture grainy World War Two footage
of B-17s having their wings shattered by anti-aircraft fire, but under
normal flying conditions, instances of spontaneous fuselage/wing separation
are so exceedingly rare that, offhand, I could not cite even one in the
entire history of modern commercial aviation.

Then came December 19th, and the deadly accident involving a commuter
seaplane in Miami. Twenty people died when the 59 year-old Grumman G-73
Turbo Mallard, operated by Chalk's Ocean Airways, plummeted into a shipping
channel just after takeoff. Investigators could put it no other way: the
wing broke off.

But this accident, perhaps more than any other in recent years, needs to be
viewed in a very tight context. The singular strangeness of the crash will
almost surely be linked to the uniqueness of Chalk's operations and the
unusual set of challenges it presents: almost nothing is rarer than vintage
seaplanes engaged in scheduled operations.

It's possible, if not probable, that the loss of the Mallard's starboard
wing will be traced to metal fatigue brought on by age. As a rule, old
planes are not unsafe planes. That's a point I've emphasized many times,
and indeed commercial aircraft are constructed to last more or less
indefinitely. But this is different. The aircraft in the accident was
constructed in 1947, putting it on the verge of its 60th birthday. That's
considerably older than virtually any commercial passenger plane, large or
small, flying in the world today, with the exception of a few widely
scattered DC-3s.

Internal corrosion, the result of routine exposure to salt water, might also
have played a role. The Mallard is in fact amphibious -- equipped with
floats and a hull-shaped fuselage for water operations, as well as
conventional landing gear -- but those at Chalk's spent much of their time
in the Atlantic around South Florida and the Bahamas. Ocean flying demands
an extra level of oversight. A Florida institution for more than 85 years,
Chalk's certainly knows this, but what steps the airline has taken toward
enhanced care of its ancient birds is unclear.

Potentially compounding the effects of age and/or corrosion were the
thousands of short-haul takeoffs and landings -- "cycles" as they're called
in the business -- performed by the seaplane on intra-Florida and Bahamas
routes. Although Mallards are unpressurized -- cycle totals tend to be more
important with pressurized aircraft, due to repeated flexing and stressing
of the fuselage -- this type of operation adds wear and tear to almost any
airframe.

Fatigue and corrosion grow and spread surreptitiously. (I was asked via
email, "How did the pilots fly from Fort Lauderdale to Miami earlier that
day without knowing a wing was about to give way?" That's a bit like asking
the people of Kashmir a few months ago why they didn't know there was about
to be an earthquake.) Less fatal, but no less dramatic events have been
traced to environments similar to those at Chalk's. An aging plane,
exposure to salt air, and a punishing short-haul schedule were partly
responsible for the fuselage burst of an Aloha Airlines 737 over Hawaii in
1988.

One more thing to consider: In the 1970s, the Mallard, was granted FAA
approval for an engine conversion program. Many of the type, including
those flown by Chalk's, had their original piston engines replaced by Pratt
& Whitney PT-6 turboprops. Although the PT-6 series engine is one of the
most popular and successful turboprops of all time, the retrofit sparked
controversy. Some believed the powerplant was too big and powerful for the
Mallard's postwar-era skeleton. Nevertheless, FAA gave its blessings and
the program went ahead. Seeing how only 59 Mallards were ever built to
begin with, many of them scrapped decades ago, this difference of opinion
wasn't exactly front-page news.

There's also a possibility that the wing did not separate spontaneously, but
may have been shorn off by aerodynamic forces following a fuel tank
explosion or catastrophic engine/propeller problem. A fireball hung in the
air, and witnesses reported unusual whining noises emanating from the
seaplane prior to its wingless plummet. Did a sheared wing cause these
sounds and explosions, or vice-versa?

Age, corrosion, engines, cycles. For investigators in Florida, determining
a single, specific cause might prove impossible. The public doesn't like
ambiguous, layered findings, but in a way we should be thankful for them.
The complexity of a given investigation serves to underscore the improbable
chain of events and codependent forces needed to cause most crashes in the
first place. In the minds of many, the Chalk's disaster will be summed up
in a most unfortunate soundbite: the wing fell off. But the truth is all
but guaranteed to be more complicated: the effects of a sexagenarian
airframe, overly powerful engines, salt-water flying, and thousands of
short-haul takeoffs and landings -- some or all of those things brought to
bear, together, in one horrible, spar-cracking moment.

Chalk's ranks with Holland's KLM and Colombia's Avianca as one of the three
eldest carriers in the world. (Qantas, Mexicana, and Bolivia's LAB round
out a top six.) A storied franchise that once made its living on the
Prohibition rum-running corridor between Florida and the Caribbean, Chalk's
has existed in several incarnations since 1919, from Chalk's Flying Service
to Pan Am Air Bridge. It has survived several ownership changes and at
least one bankruptcy. Prior to last week's crash, Chalk's was again in
perilous financial straits. Its future is even more questionable now.

==========

THIS WEEK'S HOPEFULLY INSPIRING EMAIL

Hi Capt. Tom,

I just wanted to let you know that I have successfully flown for the second
time this past weekend. Before March, I hadn't flown in 6 years. Then I
had a conference that I had to present at so I had to fly. Using your course,
I was able to successfully fly to Chicago and back and actually enjoyed it.
Amazing seeing as on the return flight we sat on the plane for 2 hours at
the gate while they tried to fix "mechanical" problems. It sounded like a
dentist was drilling under the plane. After 2 hours of not being able to fix
it, they decommissioned the plane and put us on another. In the past, this
would have completely unnerved me, but I was fine.

This past weekend my husband and I flew to Boca Raton to visit our best
friend who moved there in October 2004. I must say it is so nice to be able
to visit people who live far from me without driving for 14+ hours. I will
admit that on the take-off coming back, I was a bit nervous. I think it had to
do with the fact that the person sitting in the window seat kept talking to me
and I felt I should look at him when he spoke. As a result, it meant that I
was looking out the window. I think in the future I will put on headphones
during take-off, even if I don't listen to anything, so that those sitting around
will not bother me. I did do 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 during take-off and that seemed to
help with the nervousness. We also experienced turbulence on the flight
down to Boca Raton (I don't know if some would consider it really rough,
but it was rough enough that I had to hold my water to keep it from spilling)
and the Jell-o exercise helped to overcome the panic which normally would
have accompanied turbulence.

I just wanted to say thanks for what you do. Without your course, I would
probably be grounded for life. I can now go visit my sister who moved out
to Montana 2 years ago. I've not been to see her because I can't take
enough vacation to drive out and back. I'm now hoping to visit in November.
The flight there should be a real challenge because it usually involves
switching planes 2-3 times. I probably will continue to write and say thanks
each time I fly. Words can't express the happiness I feel at being able to fly
without fear now.

Thank you again for creating this course!

Sincerely,

==========

DO YOU WANT TO TRAVEL SOMEPLACE WARM?

If you start now, the results you get will be solidly in place for your trip. We
get good results in just a few days, but excellent results when you have a
couple of weeks to practice the exercises that provides automatic control
of high anxiety and makes panic impossible.

For example, notice the letter above: "In the past, this would have completely
unnerved me, but I was fine."

To get started, please just go to:

http://www.fearofflying.com/store.shtml

For almost everyone, the best set of DVDs to get started with is "The Control
of Anxiety". If you would like to talk it over first to be sure what is right for
you
please call me at 877 332-7359 or 203 258-4803. I'm available from 10 AM
until 7 PM Eastern (same as New York) time.

==========

LAST MINUTE HELP IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE

Even if you are flying TODAY (!!!) we can provide a lot of help. Don't risk not
being able to take the flight.

Just call. It will help.