IT'S CHAT NIGHT, SO THIS MUST BE WEDNESDAY . . .

It's great to find out you are not the only person who feels this way.

It is a huge relief to find out there are solid answers for this problem,
even if you might qualify as having the worst case of flight anxiety in
the world.

Please join us at www.fearofflying.com/chat between 9 and 11 PM
Eastern time. Make up something to call yourself (for privacy) and
see what others have to say, and if you feel like having a few words,
just join in.

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BOREDOM IN THE COCKPIT WITH TERROR IN THE CABIN - WHY?

When I first started working with fearful flyers, I heard of lot of stories
about flights in which a person felt they had narrowly escaped death.
Suddenly it dawned on me that some of these flights were flights I was
on as the pilot. I went back home and told my family it was boring,
while a passenger when home and reported narrowly escaping death.

In the cockpit, we know what is going on. In the cabin, you can't. If
your tendency is anxiety, you can easily interpret trouble when all is
- though perhaps unique in your experience - something pilots have
encountered repeatedly with no ill effects whatsoever.

For pilots, turbulence is just not a problem. Knowing that, when we
encounter turbulence, we don't pay much attention to it. If we can
change altitudes and get a better ride, we do it - not because of safety
- but so the flight attendants can continue service in the cabin. But for
a passenger who is not in the know, turbulence can mean terror.

Notice that in heavy turbulence, it feels like you hit pavement at the
the bottom of the bumps. That should tell you something comforting.
It tells you that the air is SO SOLID at several hundred miles per hour
that when a plane moves down just a bit, it uses up all the elasticity
in the air, and then, since there is no more springiness in the air, you
feel like the plane slammed into concrete at the bottom of the bump.
Couldn't it be comforting to know that the plane simply can't go down
any further than that?

Just as if you went to Home Depot and started filling your car with
bags of cement, each bag would make it go down, down, down, until
the springs bottomed out. Then adding more bags would not make the
car go down any more.

The same is true with the plane. You can only go down a bit and then
air collects so solidly under the wings that it simply cannot go down
any more at all.

For one who is anxious, a flight experienced as a near-death
experience is just another boring flight to the pilots. Interpretation
and imagination cause the problem.

But even if you know better, flying can cause anxiety because the
amygdala isn't as rational as you are. Though you know flying is OK,
the amygdala thinks otherwise, and revs you "up, up, and away" with
stress hormones.

It doesn't matter how rational YOU are if your amygdala over-reacts
to flight. What is the answer? Retrain your amygdala. Teach your
amygdala that flying is not something it needs to react to.

How?

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

Read the recommendations. If you have a question, call me:

877 332-7359

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FIVE-THOUSAND 737S

On Monday, the five-thousanth 737 rolled out of the Boeing factory in
Renton, Washington. Imagine. All those thousands of 737 flying all the
time and nothing unusual happening. Add the 747s, 757s, 767s, and
777s to it - not to mention the Airbuses, etc. isn't it time to get your
feelings updated to the way it really is?

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PHI BETA KAPPA AND FEARFUL UNTIL SOAR

No matter how brilliant the left brain is, the emotional action in the
right brain can run the show. In fact, when a person is brilliant, it
is often the case that - instead of developing the right (emotional)
side of the brain so it operates fluidly on its own, there is a tendency
to try to dominate the right (emotional) side with the left (intellectual)
side.

And that works . . . up to a point. Past the point, forget it. As the
writer of the following email said, something "snapped" and all the
intellectual understanding suddenly because inadequate to rule
the emotions developing out of control in the right brain.

It is a problem I've seen again and again with lawyers, who - I
suppose - are oriented to expect reason to be trumps. When
emotion trumps reason, as it does so often in flying, the person's
whole modus opreandi is rendered impotent.

When I was a kid, I spent hours and hours on my bike. As a
result, I developed massive leg muscles. When I went into the
Air Force, and to pass the P.E. test, fifteen chin-ups were called
for, I was in trouble; I couldn't do even one. All my muscular
development was in the lower half of my body.

Think of what happens when a person develops the left brain. It
seems like a good idea, particularly when you have a really good
one.

But the right brain goes begging. Sure, you can often compensate
for lack of development in the right brain by using a brilliant and
well-developed left brain.

But when that fails, then what?

You try harder intellectually. And, again, fail. There are some
things you just cannot do with the left brain.

Sometime my work requires me to introduce a person to the
other half of their brain, and ask them to start paying attention
to developing it and getting it to do the work it is better designed
for.

There is so much emphasis on producing smart kids, and so
little awareness that an emotionally balanced average kid will
be far more successful than the brightest kid who lacks good
emotional development.

Anyway, here's the email all this was leading up to . . .

Dear Tom,

Every time I read one of your newsletters I feel a pang of guilt for
not sharing with you my successful flights this past August.

I had last flown in 1995. I had always been a somewhat nervous flyer,
but I had flown numerous times while in college and graduate school,
including 3 transatlantic flights. However, in 1995, on a trip from DC
to Denver, something "snapped" -- this was the first time I had flown
with my wife and kids (ages 6 and 4 at the time). Even though I
understood the theories of how planes stay up in the air, I simply
couldn't get over an irrational fear that the laws of physics would
somehow quit as soon as we were in the air -- that the air would
somehow lose its ability to hold us up, or the molecules of aluminum
in the wings would lose their grip on one another. It was all I could
do to keep from yelling at the woman across the aisle from me to stop
prattling on to her seatmate about the TV show she had seen the night
before and tell her to start praying (which of course, I was doing,
while squeezing the arms of my seat for dear life). Totally irrational
behavior for me -- a 33 year old male, lawyer, member of Phi Beta
Kappa, with degrees from Georgetown & NYU.

After that trip I avoided flying for 10 years; I'm lucky that my wife
understood and went by herself with the kids when family visits
required flying. This past summer, however, I knew that she wanted
all of us to fly to California to visit some colleges that my daughter
is interested in attending. So, I found your website, and ordered a
set of your videos. I wasn't the most assiduous at practicing the
strenghtening exercises, since i didn't have a whole lot of time, but
I did them enough times so that I was able to use them. The most
helpful piece I picked up from your videos was the jello model for
understanding turbulence. It came in handy, and was particularly
comforting because we experienced a fair amount of turbulence flying
into and out of Las Vegas on our way from DC to Los Angeles. No
panic attacks; no fears that I couldn't conquer. On our way back home,
as we were on the shuttle bus heading to the airport, there was a TV
playing CNN that was reporting the crash of a Helios Air plane in
Greece. Before having seen your videos and read your newsletters,
that surely would have sent me straight to the Amtrak terminal, but I
was able to take it in stride, and get on the plane with confidence.

Anyway, I should have sent this to you in August, but better late than
never.

Thanks for helping me!

==========

PATRICK'S BLOG

Patrick writes about foreign travel, his own, and Pan Am golden years
at:

http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2006/02/03/askthepilot172/

If you are not a subscriber, watching a brief add gets you into Salon.com

==========

WANT TO TRAVEL SOMEPLACE WARM?

Start now and 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.

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. 877 332-7359 or 203 258-4803. Available 10 AM until
7 PM Eastern (same as New York) time.

==========