I have been flying since I was a little kid. I have been around the world. When I was in 6th grade, my dad took me to Japan and Taiwan for the first time. It was a long, long trip, but I loved every second of it. I flew on all types of planes on that trip alone. I was even on a 747 that hit such bad turbulence, the panels between the upper deck and first class were falling down. The flight attendant held them up with a broom handle until they were able to snap them back up. It didn’t even faze me. I thought it was fun.
I flew all over the US too. I have flown on tiny prop planes and large jumbo jets. I never once had a problem with it. Then one flight ruined it all for me. My wife, her sisters and I flew to Wichita, Kansas to visit her dad around 1997. The flight there was great. I flew on a regional jet for the first time which was excellent. Had a beautiful view of St. Louis while flying from Cincinnati to Wichita. I was ready to find out where else they were flying these jets so I could plan my next trip to be on them if possible. It was the dead of winter in Wichita, which is unbelievably cold. There was tons of snow and bad weather the week we stayed there, but I never thought twice about it.
Our trip came to an end and we had to leave. We were flying an airline I had never heard of before. It was an affiliate of an affiliate of Delta. We were flying back through Dallas instead of the way we came and the plane was a little prop job that sat about 20 people. No big deal, I had been on them before. It was a couple hours and we would be on a jumbo jet heading to Ft. Lauderdale. Well, not so fast, this would be the flight that would change everything for me for the next 10 years.
As we boarded, it began to rain, freezing rain. Cool, never see that in Florida. We taxied and took off. A bit bumpy, but it’s a small plane, what do you expect. Then it began to get a little bumpier. It was also getting dark. There would be no drinks on this plane, the flight attendant was told to stay seated. Than it began. The wind was constantly pushing the plane to the right. I mean pushing it like we were getting hit by a Mack truck every few seconds. It was ok the first few times. I figured it will stop in a minute and I can go to sleep. Well 10 minutes later, we’re still rolling to the right, and it is getting bumpier and bumpier. By this time, there were a few screams during the bigger drops. I was watching the flight attendant, I always figure if they aren’t scared, there is no reason for me to be scared. She wasn’t giving any hints if she was scared or not. I couldn’t tell if this was ok for her or not. But hey, it couldn’t get worse than this could it? You have no idea.
After about 20 minutes of this, I figured we aren’t going to go to Dallas, the weather is getting worse the further South we go. We should be looking for somewhere else to land. To make me feel better, the pilot decided now would be a good time to start checking the wings with a spot light from the cockpit. This is not what I needed to see. I never did figure out what he was looking for, but he checked the wings the rest of the flight about every 5 minutes. I joked with my wife that he was making sure the wings were still there, but now I wonder if that wasn’t so far off.
As we got closer to Dallas the plane ride began to smooth out. I looked around at other people on the plane and most were in tears. My wife’s sisters fell asleep before we took of and somehow slept through the whole thing. The flight attendant was writing something on a pad of paper and never once looked up at us. I think maybe it was her will. The pilot finally came on the speaker and I thought for sure they would say we are sorry for the bumpy ride, now that we are out of the weather, we will land at the next airport we can, but that wasn’t the case, they simply said we were 20 minutes out and would be landing shortly.
To this day I don’t know if that was a typical bad weather flight on a plane that small or we were close to crashing at some point. There were a few rolls to the right that I am sure the plane was closer to being upside down than right side up. The pilot smiled as we got off the plane and we flew home on a nice large Delta Jumbo. But something bad happened that night. I lost my nerve. I didn’t want to fly any more.
About a year later, my wife and I were married and we went on our honeymoon to Antigua. It was about a 3 hour flight from Miami. Not bad, but I was actually dreading it. For the first time in my life, I didn’t want to get on a plane. We went and sure enough, we had another bad flight. On the way back from Antigua, we arrived in South Florida to find all the airports were closed due to thunderstorms. We circled over the everglades, slow and low, for about an hour. Right over the value jet crash site. I could see the hole and the flags marking it off. Not a good view for somebody that doesn’t want to be flying in the first place.
We had received first class tickets from my dad as a Wedding present so we were in the bulkhead seats, right in the first row. Back then, nobody thought twice about the cockpit door being open. It was open now and the flight attendant was talking to the pilot while we circled. She came back out to us and says “We are running out of fuel, so we are going to our alternate airport.” What? Out of gas? Alternate Airport? Ok, I can deal with this set back. We will go to Palm Beach and I will get out and drive home. No big deal.
After powering back up and launching through the Thunderstorms we were trying to avoid, I see we are over the ocean again in no time. Why over the ocean? Well the pilot answered that for us. Turns out our alternate airport was not just up the Interstate an hour. It was across the ocean an hour. We were on our way to Nasssau, Bahamas. Well that’s nice. We get to nassau safely, land and sit for about two hours. Oh, and we are not allowed to leave the plane due to customs regulations. So we refuel, go to Miami, land, and I don’t get on a plane again for almost 10 years.
That brings us to about 2 weeks ago. Someone walks in my office and tells me I need to go to Puerto Rico for business. I’m the boss, I have to go. It will be fine. I smile and say ok, then spend the next two weeks freaking out. I thought of fifty reasons why I couldn’t go every night. Everyday I went to work planning on telling them I wasn’t going to make it, someone else would have to go, but I sucked it up and didn’t say much to anybody. Some people at work thought it was funny to leave images on my computer of crashing planes etc. A little over the top for my taste, but most people don’t think of flying as being dangerous at all and thought I was being a bit of a wimp. Maybe so, but… I hadn’t flown in 10 years. That was the biggest mistake.
I went ahead and flew to Puerto Rico. I think I hyperventilated for the first time in my life, but after about 10 minutes in the air, I was fine. I actually enjoyed it. The landing was fine, heck the whole experience was fine. I wish I did this 9 years ago. We’re already planning our next trip. Unfortunately, our kids have never flown and they know daddy didn’t like it too much, so I am convincing them now it will be fine and I think they want to go now too.
So if you have a fear of flying, don’t let it make you miss out on travelling. There is so much to see out there and you are safer on a plane than on the street. Get on a plane and suck it up and enjoy your trip.
Yes, that’s right, I took the plunge and went to my 
