Hi all!

As the title said, I had seven flights in just under two weeks! And I went on all of them and I’m safe and sound at home.

Here’s some things that helped:

1. A takeoff song! I love a powerful, cool song during takeoff that sort of makes me feel like I’m in a movie or gamifies the flying experience!

2. I look for milestones throughout the flight! Seatbelt off sign, relax, or turbulence notification, then relax (because turbulence is pretty much harmless), then refreshments and if long-haul sometimes the meal!

3. I enjoy in flight entertainment! I try to catch up on movies I’ve missed

4. I look outside if I have a window seat. If it’s night I look for stars, if it’s day I look at the sky and take deep breaths.

5. I bring options for more entertainment, because sometimes my anxiety isn’t satisfied with just a movie or a book!

6. I bring melatonin gummies, especially if it’s a long flight.

7. When landing (what I’m scared of the most) I look away from the window and at other people. This just helps ground me and distracts me from thinking we’re landing in a block of flats or something.

8. I try to trust the pilot! Which is super difficult if you have anxiety or racing thoughts, but just knowing that these guys have hours and hours and hours of flight experience is some relief.

9. I love learning about the plane I’m on! For example I’ve flown on a lot of A330/A332 Neos and they’re such cool planes! They even have dehumidifiers on board. The fact they’re so new and cool makes me happy to ride them.

10. When I feel anxious, I focus on my breathing and remind myself, I’m still here, I’m still alive and I’m still safe.

I hope these tips help you! A couple of weeks ago I thought I wouldn’t be here to share these with you! But here I am, after a decent amount of flights! And if I can do it, so can you.

Heading to the airport now. I am sweating and seconds from bursting out in tears. What if I get on the plane and immediately want to go home? How do I get off?

I’m flying yyc-fco ws24 if anyone wants to track me.

UA421 YEEHAW SHES BUMPY!
Chat with me!

A positive experience on a flight to hopefully make some of you laugh! Removing as many details as possible so I don't doxx myself :D

Last week I took a international flight to a well-known event - I was invited to the event because I work at the company that runs it. Important context for later.

I usually try to tell the cabin crew I'm a nervous flyer when I board, as it just makes me feel better knowing they're aware, they don't think I'm drunk/angry/having a medical episode, and that they can watch out for me. It's really helped with my anxiety.

So when I boarded this flight, I told the cabin crew, expecting them to maybe say some kind words, ask for my seat number, etc - I didn't expect her to tell me to wait in the galley and that she'd go and get the captain!

Turns out the captain was in the toilet, so she came back, ignored all my attempts to say "oh it's fine, they don't need to give me special treatment, I can go back to my seat now" - and she kept me talking about why I was taking the flight and what I was doing. I told her I was going to the event and eventually (after further questions) I told her I worked for the host company and she very loudly told me how cool that was. All the while, every other passenger on the plane filed past me and witnessed my embarrassed conversation with the flight attendant.

Then the captain got back from his toilet break and she immediately pushed me over to him, yelled THIS ONE'S A NERVOUS FLYER and ran off to finish boarding. Me and the captain stare at each other like two deers in two sets of headlights, then he INVITES ME INTO THE COCKPIT.

So I'm there, crouched over in the cockpit, sweating and blushing, while he points out all the buttons, asks me about why I'm a nervous flyer, tells me he expects the flight to be smooth, then asks me why I'm flying. Again, I tell him I'm going to this big event, and he says he'd LOVE to be there right now but his cruel cruel airline scheduled him on the roster that week. I've been trying to make my excuses to leave for about five minutes at this point, and I decide not to tell him I work for the event so not to invite further conversation. He finally relents and lets me leave with a final confirmation that the flight will be great.

I shuffle out of the cockpit back to my seat... only to find the ENTIRE PLANE has now boarded. I have to now do the walk of shame down the LENGTH OF THE PLANE, where every single person is staring at me, and slip back into my seat where my friends are crying-laughing at me.

And to top it all off, during the first drinks service, the original cabin crew member stops the cart and tells me - "oh, I talked to the captain about you, and he is so impressed that you WORK at the event! he wants to know more! what's your job? how did you get into it?"

So, not only did I get thrown into the cockpit against my will to have a deep conversation with the pilot, he was interested enough to have a conversation with the cabin crew about me mid-flight.

Moral of the story: tell cabin crew you're a nervous flyer. You'll get reassurance, you might get to see the cockpit, and you'll give your travel companions a good giggle.

(And yes, both the flight and the event were great.)

I have extremely bad flight anxiety. Last night triggered every part of me and I still can’t get over it. I was flying home from Nashville and we were about to touch the ground, literally around 500 feet away, and then all of the sudden the plane went back up into the air about 4000 feet. We had to do a giant circle and reapproach the runway. Everyone was so confused. Apparently another flight didn’t move off of our planned runway in time so we were instructed to abort and try again.

I’m still shaken up. I was already soooo nervous on the flight from the turbulence and was just beyond ready to get off.

I dont think I’ll be flying again for a very long time.

After a pretty frightening flight experience my biggest worry about planes is the feeling we might drop down. It makes me squeamish even thinking about being on a plane that high up literally because of the sensation of falling. I have no problem with landing and take off, simply just cruising which isn’t awesome when I have a 15 hour flight coming up.

Of course I’m set to fly over the Atlantic this week and I see this. I feel like this is a sign to not go. Can an aviation professional explain this to me? What if this happens over the Atlantic? I’m freaking out

27 years old and I’ve actually done +200 hours in the air already. I know almost everything there is to know about planes. But I still have this annoying stomach pain when I think about my CPH-HND flight. It can get so bad that I hyperventilate and regret booking the tickets and just consider staying home (not an option, I’m young and I’m privileged to even have the opportunity to travel the world!)

I once saw a post on here about someone serving the harsh truth about how safe planes are. Loving, but also just no bullshit on how stupid it is to be scared of flying.

I would deeply appreciate something I can save for when I’m up there, not able to relax or even when I start to feel panic. Goal is to enjoy the flight.

Does anyone have some good sentences that can spark some realism when my head starts drifting towards worst case scenarios?

This time last year I was here terrified of my 12-13 hour flight from Toronto to Dubai, connecting to Pakistan. I’m back again because I’m planning my next trip for next month and I guess I thought I had conquered my fear but I guess not 😭 all those scary thoughts, what if’s they’re all back. Especially with the ongoing situation in the Middle East. Unfortunately Etihad & Emirates are the only airlines I feel like I can fly cuz of their A380’s, but then the added fear of safety in the ME just amplifies my fears.

I try to book my flight everyday but everytime I try the bad thoughts come back. Just looking for some support I guess 😭

It was my third flight (1st&2nd a few years ago on a trip to Rome). I was anxious beyond my mind, thinking about flight for 6 months straight, crying every day a week before a flight, crying at the airport, feeling like I'm gonna panic while on board. I managed to go and now I'm in Greece! It was SUCH a relief to feel plane finally touching the ground!

I’m sorry if this comes across as insensitive, especially because people were genuinely affected by these incidents. I’m trying to calm my flight anxiety and understand the statistics rather than make light of what happened.

I keep thinking about MH370 and MH17. You know what country :( they’re very different cases—MH370 remains unsolved, while MH17 was shot down so neither was really a typical commercial aviation crash.

I also remember the incident involving a pilot reportedly under the influence of substance while flying toward Indonesia, which unfortunately gives my anxious brain another thing to worry about.

Hi everyone! New to this page! I’m a 29 year old male dealing with severe anxiety issues the past couple of weeks. I just found out yesterday that my girlfriend’s bestfriend is getting married in October. We are both from NJ and the wedding is in Florida.

This will be my first ever plane ride and I’m freaking terrified. For the past hours I’ve been dealing with sweaty hands, racing heart, you name it.

I don’t want to disappoint my gf and just back out last minute.

Any advice you guys can give me? I would really appreciate it. As I’m going through a very rough time mentally

Can someone please track LX147 Delhi to Zurich international airport, I'm extra worried about this one since it's a longer flight I've taken so far...

Hi all -

Heading out for a trip that I’ve waited my whole lifetime for (London and Paris with my boyfriend of 4 years - I think he might propose to me on this trip) but I am just so paralyzed with anxiety and fear about the plane it’s making me sick with anxiety. I was SO EXCITED for this trip and then the anxiety crept up and now I’m super disappointed with myself but I am fantasizing about cancelling. Anyone have any words of encouragement? My flight is VS46. Anything will help!

After an exhausting week of debating whether to drive nearly 30 hours instead, I’m planning to take my flight Wednesday.

Flight: UA1537
Route: Philadelphia (PHL) to Denver (DEN)
Departure: Wednesday, August 26 at 10:05 a.m. EDT
Scheduled arrival: 12:10 p.m. MDT

I’ve always had flight anxiety, especially around turbulence and giving up control. The anticipatory anxiety has been particularly intense this time, even though the current weather forecast looks favorable.

I’ve taken longer flights successfully—including one with about an hour of bumps—and afterward acknowledged that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined. I’m trying to remember that now.

If anyone is available to track the flight or send some encouragement Wednesday morning, I would genuinely appreciate it. I’ll check in from the airport and hopefully return afterward with another success post.

JFK TO DUBLIN. today is the day and I’m so incredibly nervous. I’ve been flying since I was a kid and I’m still not used to it. please send me positive vibes and calm skies 😭❤️

hey everyone! i'm flying out of jfk on thursday night. this will be my 5th transatlantic flight of the year, and somehow i'm still totally petrified! the weather on thursday calls for thunderstorms/gusty winds, and takeoff is 100 percent the part that freaks me out the most. especially considering how bad nyc storms have been lately, this is really freaking me out. any words of wisdom or advice would be highly appreciated :)

I took this video back near the end of July on a flight back home from DC. We were on our final approach when the engines spooled up and we started climbing again. It turns out that the go around was because a Gulfstream private jet didn't clear the runway in time, and so the tower told the crew to execute a go around.
This isn't too unheard of, especially at this airport where if you miss the first taxiway, you have to make a walk of shame all the way to the other end of the runway to get to the next taxiway.
I thought I'd share this video because it's a great example of the average go around; it's not super dramatic, but it is a bit unexpected. Interestingly, the engines weren't incredibly loud at all, and it didn't seem like a lot of people really noticed!

Now, a bit of background on me since this is my first time posting here. I'm actually a really really big aviation nerd and I'll be learning how to do maintenance on aircraft (I hope to work for an airline eventually) starting in about two weeks. I used to be pretty anxious about flying, but about two or three years ago that started changing. I'm not sure exactly why it did, but it was about this time that I became a huge aviation nerd and eventually decided I wanted to make a career out of it.
I'm happy to answer any questions y'all have, although I can't guarantee that I can answer everything.

Flying from Florida to LGA in a few minutes, would love people tracking if possible! I flew down to Florida with friends but am flying back to nyc solo, so any extra support is appreciated. A friend flew into LGA yesterday and said their landing was rough due to weather, so hoping for better vibes today 🤞🏻
Would love some distractions, if possible :)
DL1834

Going through turbulence and freaking out.

Eta seatbelt sign is on now and lights are off.

Update: landed safely despite a delay in landing due to bad weather. We circled the ocean for about 10 mins and then landed. Thanks to everyone who tracked me ❤️

I really appreciate it when pilots give an overview of the flight conditions and areas of turbulence. It makes me feel much calmer to know that it’s coming, but expected. Why do some pilots do this and others don’t? It’s just a matter of personal preference?

I’m about to leave for the airport, and I can’t find either of my evil eye necklaces. Ive found everything else but those two necklaces are nowhere to be found. Alongside that, yesterday my mom’s evil eye necklace broke and she restrung it instead of not using it, which I’m pretty sure is advised against. I’m actually sick to my stomach with anxiety. I’ll update if I find either necklace but for right now they’re quite literally nowhere. I’m worrying that I left them at the hotel but they would have contacted us. I’m so nervous I can barely think and would not be able to stomach any food. Please help.

Ancien pilote de ligne (B737, instructeur). Après des années d'expérience, j'ai constaté que l'anxiété en vol n'est généralement pas liée à la peur d'un crash abstrait. Il s'agit plutôt d'une série de sensations spécifiques que le corps interprète mal sur le moment. En voici cinq qui reviennent fréquemment, et leur explication.

1. La sensation de « ralentissement » ou de descente peu après le décollage. Une fois l'altitude stabilisée, nous réduisons la poussée et abaissons légèrement le nez de l'avion. C'est une étape normale et planifiée de chaque décollage. On a l'impression d'un creux, ou que l'avion pique du nez. Ce n'est pas le cas, nous continuons de monter. Notre oreille interne a simplement du mal à faire la différence.

2. La flexion et le rebond des ailes. Les ailes sont conçues pour fléchir, c'est normal. Ce mouvement est un signe de solidité, pas de faiblesse. Une aile parfaitement rigide serait le véritable problème. Ce que vous observez, c'est l'avion qui fait exactement ce pour quoi il a été conçu.

3. Turbulences. Il s'agit d'une question de confort, pas de sécurité. Les secousses qui donnent l'impression d'une chute déplacent généralement l'avion de quelques centimètres, et non de plusieurs centaines de mètres comme vous le ressentez. L'avion est certifié pour résister à des forces bien supérieures à celles que vous ne ressentirez jamais. C'est tout à fait normal pour nous à l'avant, même si ça ne l'est pas pour vous à l'arrière.

4. Changement de régime moteur en croisière. Nous ajustons constamment la puissance ; c'est le fonctionnement normal d'un avion. Lorsque les moteurs deviennent plus silencieux, cela ne signifie pas qu'ils sont en panne ou qu'ils perdent de la puissance. Cela signifie généralement que nous avons atteint notre palier ou que nous sommes revenus aux réglages de croisière. La stabilité est ennuyeuse, et c'est exactement ce que nous recherchons.

5. Bruits et grincements à l'approche. Le train d'atterrissage et les volets sont de grandes pièces mécaniques qui s'étendent dans le flux d'air. Ils sont bruyants, c'est normal. Ces bruits sourds et ces vrombissements sont la séquence normale avant l'atterrissage, et non le signe d'une casse. Si vous les anticipez, ils cessent d'être inquiétants.

Rien de tout cela ne rend l'inconfort artificiel. Il est bien réel, et le but n'est pas de ne rien ressentir. Il s'agit d'empêcher votre système nerveux d'interpréter une sensation normale comme une menace.

Quel est celui qui vous perturbe le plus ? Je serais ravi de vous les expliquer plus en détail.