Fear Of Flying or Fear of Falling?

Since my first flight to Canada in 1978, I have been a little bit afraid of flying. Over the next 15 years I flew more and more as my job as the "Export Manager" for a Southampton based Engineering company meant spending months away from home flying from country to country. I recall on one tour completing 18 flights across India, Asia and Australia. I became more nervous each flight until I recall having to be off my "Gin and Tonic face" to get onto the Jumbo returning from Melbourne. Illogical fear, but then what part does logic play in fear?

I knew I had to do something about it and so to my first flight in a microlight in Somerset 3 years later at the tender age of 29, being scared stiff was part of the plan! I recall looking up at the wing and the wires and thinking it wont hold! What makes those bumps! Do we have to fly the whole hour?

Its odd if I was so frightened why did I book in and have lessons? What is it about fear that make us want more? That is a question I cant answer just now, but gaining my license at a time when fast was 50-mph and most machines went 45 mph. A 45 minute cross country was a huge distance I was still a little nervy... and so I flew until I had 75 hours or so on my log when a flight on the 09.08.1995 went so wrong I stopped flying the minute the wheels touched the ground. My next flight was logged on 17.02.2001 - "P-U-T"

Now when I recall those feeling as I write it makes me think about my fellow flyers now who are so very nervous every time they fly, the ones who don't like the bumps or who are unsure of there flying. The guys who fly the latest hardware but fret about 15-mph winds. Has my attitude to them become a little hard nose? Should I still worry too?

No I don't worry now, and no I don't need too. I have developed a mechanism though flying on Fly UK when hugh distance and fatigue plays a part, that enables me to relax more and more as it become bumpy or hectic, and the worse it gets the less I hold the bar and worry, I relax more!

I think this comes from a solid understanding of the subject, a very though ground inspection and good planning. Add to this a whole bunch of experience over and the knowledge that if I die flying, I will die doing the one thing on this earth that I love more than I love myself. I am not sure I could live without flying now,life would simply be an existence if I didn't have to face my fears, wouldn't it?

;-0