anxiety with flying

I am traveling to LAS in March for work.  I just booked the flight. 

I am already feeling anxious about the damn flight. 

I hate this.  I really do.

Everything logical tells me that I will be safe.  Statistics keep me safe.  Hell, Steve flies every week and always comes home safe.  I know I will be okay.  But, I am still anxious.

And, it doesn't help that when I mention this to Steve his response is usually just "you will be fine." That isn't too comforting.  He doesn't get my anxiety...at all...so he really can't help me through this. 

Since 2006 I have been either pregnant or nursing during flights, so I have not taken medication while flying.  I think I am going to get a Rx for this flight.  Or, maybe I will just down a good couple of beers.  But, at 8am?  Are bars even open that early in the airports?

Isn't it funny that I am married to a pilot, yet I am an anxious flyer?  I have flown a good amount and I know what is going on, but I am still anxious.  Maybe that is it: I know too much, but I don't know enough.  I know what can happen during flight, but yet I don't really know enough about what is going on.

I have about three months of anxiety ahead of me...this should be fun!

Comments

  1. My husband always says :"Remember the pilot wants to go home just as bad as you do". Somehow that gives me a little comfort. I know there is a human up there but he reminds me that the human is just like him a son, husband, dad, brother. Makes it feel safer. Stupid that I a wife of a pilot have to be reminded that they are real people in that cockpit right?

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  2. I have never been anxious flying, but I sure don't enjoy it. I have to do all the tricks (moderately full stomach, cool air, trying to sleep) not to get nauseous during takeoff and landing.

    I feel for ya. And sometimes you probably hear about unprofessional pilot behavior (not by your husband, but things you hear from him or on the news). I'd be much more comfortable if my husband were the pilot on all my flights.

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  3. Yes, I hear about unprofessional behavior, and that actually isn't really what scares me. Sometimes the unprofessional behavior is funny...I shouldn't make light, but sometimes I think how bad it would be if Steve's plane went down and the cockpit voice recorder was released...some of the things they talk about up there can be rather, um, *interesting* to say the least. I am actually thinking of this one CA that Steve flew with in particular...

    The worry comes more from things like when Steve's buddy lost and engine while at cruise altitude and I heard the words "fuel contamination." His fuel was not contaminated, but that thought came to his mind immediately as a possibility. I never knew about that before, but now I do...and I hate that.

    Or, when his buddy had his stick shaker go off while flying over the mountains. Scared him so much that he actually thought about getting out of flying. Those are the things that I know about that scare me...but again, I don't *really* know enough to know I am still okay.

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