Life After Fear - Redefine Your Limits

Episode 19 - Cleared for Takeoff: How to Fly Without Fear

• Courtney Schoch • Episode 19

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 12:06

Courtney: Welcome back everyone to episode 19 of Life After Fear, Redefine Your Limits with Courtney Schoch. This is where you go to confront your fears and transform your life. 

What if I told you that the fear of flying is not really about flying at all? It's about something much deeper that might be holding you back in ways that you have not even realized.

With the recent aviation incidents and accidents, flying has sparked some fear and quite a bit of conversation. 

My daughter was visiting, and the night before her flight home, the DCA accident occurred. Despite her being the daughter of an airline pilot, she still feels apprehensive about air travel.

When she heard about the accident just hours before her flight, imagine how that made her feel. She became more aware of her concerns regarding flying. That accident also made me pause. I have flown into DCA airport so many times and am familiar with the approach and the procedures. But that could have been one of my flights or the flight of someone that I knew.

This got me thinking a little bit more about how many people are affected by their fear of flying and how that fear is amplified when an accident or an incident occurs. 

What is it about flying that makes people so anxious and so nervous? 

Statistically, air travel is the safest form of transportation. In fact, according to the National Safety Council, the odds of dying in a plane crash are approximately 1 in 11 million. 1 in 11 million. Compare that to the 1 in 106 for a car accident. That was information published in 2023. But for so many, stepping onto an aircraft feels like stepping into an absolute nightmare.

And believe it or not, I was afraid to fly before I took my first flight lesson. And when I took that first flight lesson, just to overcome my fear of flying, I fell in love with it. Imagine that, being afraid of something and then ending up conquering that fear and that fear becomes your career. It's incredible.

But today, what we're going to explore is why so many people have a fear of flying. From the psychology to media influence and also the pros and cons of this fear because yes, please remember fear has its uses. In addition, we're going to discuss how to overcome the fear. There are going to be some practical proven techniques to overcome flight anxiety.

Let's start with the why. Why are people afraid to fly? Most people aren't actually afraid of airplanes. They're afraid of losing control. Dr. Martin, a psychologist specializing in anxiety disorders, explains that a lack of control is one of the biggest contributors to fear. 

When you're in a car, you can stop, turn, or get out. In a plane, you must trust someone else, your pilots, me, to do that for you. Personally, from experience, I can say this is true. Also, I'd like to add that many people simply do not understand what happens up in the sky, from the aerodynamics of an aircraft to air traffic control, weather, and all the other factors that surround aviation.

The unknown feeds into that fear. 

There's also media influence. Hollywood and news outlets also fuel this fear. A study by Griffith University in Australia found that people who frequently watch movies or news stories about plane crashes have a significantly higher fear of flying than those who don't.

Think about it. How many movies show safe routine flights? Hmm, I think it's probably very few of them. But how many times have you seen a crash dramatized on the screen? Films like Final Destination and Castaway reinforce the idea that flying is risky when in reality, it's one of the safest activities you can do. 

Not to mention, sometimes the media doesn't always have the facts. I've watched news clips, and the information at times was just incorrect, and that can create unnecessary stress and also feed the fear.

From the pilot's perspective, I'd like to share this. Every time you board an aircraft, you are in the hands of professionals who have invested thousands of hours of training and preparing for every possible scenario on the ground and in the air.

We practice in simulators that expose us to engine failures, extreme turbulence, extreme weather conditions, and all kinds of emergencies or unusual situations. We don't just pass a test and call it a day. Every six months, we return to that simulator to demonstrate our ability to handle it all over again.

We will not take any type of action that jeopardizes the safety of the flight. Have you ever been at the gate and noticed a flight delay? If you fly frequently, the answer is most likely yes. And how often has it been delayed due to weather or maintenance issues? That's most likely the cause of the delay, from my experience.

Safety is our top priority. If a flight needs to be delayed or canceled due to safety concerns, then that's what will happen. It's inconvenient but necessary. Flights can even be delayed or canceled if a crew member feels unwell or fatigued. Until a replacement is found for the crew member, that flight will not depart the gate.

Well, why is that? Because the crew is part of the safety chain. If any link in that chain is compromised or weak, it must be addressed before the flight can proceed. 

For example, the airline that I work for, Southwest Airlines. Remember the runway incursion at Chicago Midway recently? Imagine if those pilots had been tired or sluggish, they might have not reacted as swiftly when the corporate jet crossed the runway during their landing, which necessitated a go around.  

Pilots understand the importance of maintaining a healthy balance both physically and mentally. Pilots are responsible for being fit for duty, and we must assess that before each and every flight.

Remember, friends, air travel isn't just safe. It's engineered for safety. Every commercial aircraft is built with redundancies. If one system fails, there's a backup. And if that fails, there's usually another. Well, and turbulence? It's uncomfortable, sure. But planes are designed to handle it, and pilots know what to do. 

There are some pros and cons of having a fear of flying. Some of the benefits, some of the pros, is that fear can heighten awareness, making you more alert in emergency situations. It can push you to learn more about aviation, which ironically can reduce fear, which is exactly what happened to me when I started to learn more about aviation. The more I learned, the more the fear dissipated. 

Another pro is that it reminds us to value our lives and be grateful. We want to take care of ourselves, which is good. It's important to be aware, but at the same time, it's important that fear does not hold us back.  

And what are some cons of being afraid of flying? It limits experiences such as vacations, job opportunities, and visiting family and friends. It also creates unnecessary stress and anxiety before and during travel. And it leads to avoidance, which only strengthens the fear over time. 

Well, if you're listening to this thinking, okay, but how do I actually beat this? I've got some suggestions. 

Here are three solid ways to conquer your flight anxiety. The first one is exposure therapy and knowledge. The more you understand about something, the less scary it becomes.

Research the facts. Read about how pilots train, how planes are designed, and how turbulence works. Consider a fear of flying course like those offered by SOAR. That's S O A R. There's a book titled The Breakthrough Treatment for the Fear of Flying by Captain Tom Bunn that was published in 2021. I'll link that in the show notes. 

Something else you can do is mindset and breathing techniques. Fear starts in the mind but manifests in the body. When anxiety kicks in, use the 4 - 7 - 8 breathing method. Inhale for four seconds, hold for seven seconds, and exhale for eight seconds. This calms the nervous system, and studies show that deep breathing reduces anxiety by up to 44%. That's from the American Psychological Association, published in 2022. 

Another thing you can do is think differently; shift and reframe your perspective instead of, Oh my gosh, I'm trapped in this airplane. Consider thinking I'm on an incredible machine designed for safety, piloted by experts, and they're taking me somewhere amazing.

A mindset shift can completely transform your experience. So you can do one or all three of these things, and I think that that will help. Please remember that fear is part of being human but letting it control you, that's a choice. 

The fear of flying is rooted in perception, not reality. The more you challenge that perception, the more free you'll become. Keep this in mind, a final thought before we close down the episode. Fear does not get to decide where you go - you do. 

That brings us to the end of episode 19, friends. This episode was something that I know a lot about. And that is turning the fear of flying into something that's powerful.

So, if this episode resonated with you, let's continue the conversation. Connect with me on social media or send a message. The links are in the description. And if you found value in today's episode, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who could benefit. Until next time, keep reaching for the sky and never settle for less than what you can be.

Take care, everyone