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For many people, flying is the most natural form of long distance travel. How else could we casually skip over vast distances for business or pleasure.
There is no other form of transport that will take you from London to Rome in just a few hours.
Many people find aviation fascinating, love the experience of fight look forwards to flying. For others it is so commonplace it is a convenience at best.
But for many people flying is neither fun or thrilling or convenient.
Some people are terrified of flying.
If you are one of the many people who feel sick at the prospect of flying then read on. This article is just for you.
I know how serious this issue is for anyone who is fearful of flying. I am not a hypnotherapist, psychologist  or a behaviour expert. But I assure you that I hope you may find some if the things I say here helpful.

What is so terrifying about flying for some people?

It seems like a question with an obvious answer. But the answer is far from obvious. For those who don’t really fear flying but are aware of the risk the answer seems too obvious. We have all seen the images on the news. And the 1970s disaster movies never helped. I don’t need to go into detail here. But most people think that the fear of flying is associated with these media representations. The fear of flying is much more complicated.

Passengers can be categorised, to a certain extent, insofar as how they approach flying on a commercial aircraft. I will list a few of them.

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  This guy doesn't fit into any category mentioned here.

  Rational risk assessors. People who don’t fear flying because they have a rational understanding of risk and realise that they are more likely to die on the way to the airport. Statistically, the number of people who die in aviation accidents are relatively low and they are of the attitude that “it won’t happen to me.”

• Hardened passengers. Regular flyers simply become hardened by exposure. Any fears they might of had when they started flying have long since been forgotten.
• The adventurous travellers. As you can imagine, some people thrive on adventure. For these people flying is just one of the many activities that enriches the quality of life because it offers a perceived risk.
• Fool hardy travellers. These are people who genuinely don’t care about risk. They just don’t put any thought into it.
• Weary travellers. People who feel that flying carries some risk but are prepared to accept those perceived risks as the benefits outweigh the perceived risk.
• Cautious passengers. Acutely aware of the possibility that something during the flight might end in disaster even though they know the chances are very small. These people will take precautionary measures like sitting in an isle.
• Reluctant/Anxious flyers. People who fear flying but do so because they feel under pressure to do so. They cope with the experience but don’t like it.
• Fearful passengers. These passengers actually believes that something is likely to happen during the flight and are prepared for the worse.
• Terrified passengers. The terrified passenger may or may not feel their fear is irrational. The very idea of getting onto an aeroplane raises the heart rate, causes heavy perspiration and involuntary responses.
• The none flyer. They’d rather stay at home or make alternate travel arrangements.

This list is by no means exhaustive and people could fall into more than one category or somewhere between two. Everyone is, after all, different.

If you are reading this then you, or someone you know, may consider one of the last few descriptions is applicable.

The interesting thing is that all these characteristics are a response to the same thing- flying.

And the reasons for the fear are as varied as the passenger response. It is not simply the fear of  falling to earth or death . If that was case then someone towards the top of the list, a rationaliser, wouldn’t drive because they know that flying isn’t as safe as flying. And yet a person at the bottom of the list may be quite happy to drive to work on a motorway every morning despite the much larger risk.

So what is it that causes some people to fear flight?

Air accidents are infrequent. But the loss of life can be high when one occurs and the media images are certainly emotive. This may certainly a contributes to someone’s fear of flying.

I have spent many years instructing people to fly. And I have flown with countless people who have taken a flying lesson in order to overcome their fear of flying. And as a result I have concluded that images of disasters in the media are not the main cause of people’s fear of flying.

I am going to tell you a story which helped me understand something about the fear of flight.

It was an ordinary Saturday afternoon when I flew with a gentleman who was physically shaking before the flight in a two seat Cessna 150. His reason for booking a trial flight was to face his fear.

Every lesson commences with a brief lesson about the flight. Trial lessons are no different. The initial brief includes some explanation about how the aeroplane works and a safety brief. I explained what I was doing at every step as we covered the procedures before the flight.

On this particular occasion I had spent some extra time putting the passenger at ease and all was going well. We’d taken off over the industrial estate at one end of the runway. And at 300 feet above the warehouses my engine failed. I won’t go into too much detail but I managed to finish all the drills, set up the aircraft for an emergency landing and send out my mayday on the radio. I had aimed my aeroplane at the only available get out of trouble patch of ground and was one hundred percent sure we were going to land safely without power.

But I still felt I had time to attempt to restart the engine before I closed off the fuel and the master electric switch. So I pumped the throttle and the mixture.

Amazingly the engine coughed into life, giving me just enough power to turn back to the runway and land with a slight tail wind.

After we landed I was expecting my already nervous passenger to be a wreck. He was actually beaming a broad smile and singing songs of praise about my skills as a pilot. Needless to say, I had a strong sweet tea before my next flight.

That gentleman, Richard, returned for three more lessons. I eventually asked him what it was that apparently cured his fear of flight.

He put it down to four factors.

1.    Because I explained everything to him he felt that I had removed the mystery of flying.

2.    Sitting behind the controls made him feel he was more in control of the situation.

3.    He now knew that aeroplanes continued to fly even when something went wrong.

4.    He witnessed, first hand, how pilots dealt calmly with a situation, resorting to a combination of training and fast, continual  assessment of the situation and the processes used to overcome it.

 So, now I’ve been asked to write something to help people who are nervous about flying.

Needless to say, I am not an expert in psychology. I am a pilot, I have experience teaching nervous passengers to fly, and my understanding of human behavior as an observational writer possibly gives me some credence.

Firstly I am going to remove some of the mystery of your flight by giving you an overview of what generally goes on behind the scenes.

Feel in control!

Unfortunately there’s no solution to problem of not being in control of the aircraft. Well there is, but it’ll take years and about a hundred thousand pounds of training. I can, however, offer some advice on how you can feel more in control of your situation while you are on board which I hope will help.

I may not be able to help you completely overcome your anxiety. But I certainly hope to help you deal your anxiety enough to get you through a flight. With the right knowledge it may be possible to become a Weary or Cautious Passenger rather than a terrified passenger.

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