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Fight your fear of flying  If
the aforementioned facts and figures still do not reassure you, you’re
in good company. Many people would rather keep their feet on the ground.
In fact up to 40 per cent of us are uneasy about hurtling through the
air at 500mph some 30,000 feet up. It just sounds so, well, damned dangerous.
And even if we know it isn’t some of us suffer so terribly we can’t
go near a check-in desk.
But help is available. ‘Fear of Flying’ courses are widely
available, such as Flying Without Fear, run by Virgin Atlantic (01423
714900, www.flyingwithoutfear.info). Workshops are conducted by serving
Virgin pilots and cabin crew, who tell you everything you never wanted
to know about aerodynamics but will probably help you once you do.
Such as:
- Wings are specifically designed to flex up and down.
- If all the engines on a plane failed at once it could glide for up
to an hour and still land safely.
- An aircraft gets the equivalent of a car’s MOT every day of
its life.
- Most large aircraft are struck by lightning at least once a year.
It’s no big deal.
The course includes a psychology session and a 45-minute flight to see
if it has worked. The staff are reassuring and one member of crew is assigned
to every eight-to-10 participants. The courses take place at 10 British
and Irish airports, priced £235pp, including lunch, ‘talking
treatment’ and flight.
Aviatours (tel. 01252 793250, www.aviatours.co.uk) is run in association
with British Airways at seven British airports and covers similar ground.
A one-day session costs £235, with talks by pilots and a clinical
psychologist plus a 45-minute flight.
You could take the cheaper but possibly not quite so effective route of
buying a book.
The Flying Without Fear package (£38.99;
www. flyingwithoutfear.com) comprises a book, CD and DVD and comes well-recommended.
Each element can be purchased individually (the book, for example, costs
£9.95). More modest are The Fearless Flier’s Handbook by Debbie
Seaman (£10.99) based on contributions from personnel of the Qantas
Fear of Flying programme and Conquer Your Fear Of Flying by Maeve Byrne
— Crangle (£8.99), which uses stress management methods. These
books are popular but probably only work for the nervous flier as opposed
to the clinically terrified.
Hypnotist are another route to the skies. Among them is former airline
pilot Anne Peacock (tel 020 7976 5352, www.flyingrelaxed.co.uk) addresses
much of what you’ll find at the official courses but can also give
you an insight into the stresses of flying with children (just in case
they had escaped you). An initial hour-and-a-half consultation costs £100.
Another approach is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which encourages
you to break down the irrational thought patterns that induce anxiety
and re-channel them to positive effect.
London-based chartered clinical psychologist Elaine Foreman has single
sessions from £187 or a two-part course from £587 which includes
a return ticket on a scheduled flight. Tel 020 8459 3428 www.freedomtofly.biz.
Airline news
EasyJet has launched a new service from London Gatwick to Innsbruck and
has also announced it will introduce a new service to Biarritz next summer.
The new four-times weekly (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) service
from London Gatwick to Biarritz in the south of France commences on July
4, with fares available from £25.99 one-way (£43.49 return
including all taxes).
The first of the new six-times weekly (excluding Saturday) service from
London Gatwick to Innsbruck is expected to be particularly popular with
independent skiers this winter, with fares from just £24.99 one-way
(£44.98 return) inc all taxes.
All of the new routes and the full London Gatwick Summer 2008 schedule
for travel up to the end of September 2008 are available for immediate
booking at www.easyJet.com |
