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STEP 1 Start by trusting the industry
Your first task is to settle all the
major worries you have regarding the airline industry. No self-help
skills will assist you in your goal unless you choose to feel safe on
commercial flights. The goal in this task is to reassure
yourself whenever you feel anxious about taking a flight.
This reassurance is not that you
are going to be physically comfortable and
relaxed, but that you are safe on the plane. Here is
the communication to aim for: "My discomfort is not really about
the plane being dangerous, this is about me having difficulty with
[not being in control, claustrophobia, panic attacks, being trapped .
. . .]" Remember, you start here. Turn the issue back onto
yourself, because you have far more control over yourself than you do
over the plane. You have many skills and attitudes to apply to the
problem of anxiety, and very little to apply to any problem of safety.
The good news is, you really don't
need to worry about safety issues with flying. It is truly the safest
mode of modern transportation. Furthermore, once you stop
blaming the industry for your fears, you will instantly have
significantly more psychological power to reduce your symptoms of
anxiety.
So, actively seek out information
about air travel, including pilot training, aircraft construction and
maintenance, the air traffic control system, the monitoring of weather
systems, turbulence and all the normal sights, sounds and sensations
while on a flight. There is much to learn if you choose to study this
topic. Here are some examples:
- The cost and duration of training
pilots with a major carrier are comparable to training a
physician.
- Back-up systems have
been provided for virtually every system on the airplane so that
if one system fails, another will takes its place. For instance, a
747 has eighteen tires: four on each of the main landing struts
and two on the nose wheel. Computers on the planes built this
decade have two or three autopilots and generally three computers
that are able to handle all necessary functions.
- Commercial aircraft average twelve
hours of maintenance on the ground for every one
hour spent in the air. Commonly scheduled maintenance checks while
the plane is grounded include twelve person-hours daily; another
seventeen person-hours every four or five days; one-hundred
twenty-five person-hours every thirty days; a two-thousand
person-hour inspection (involving one hundred and ten people) once
every twelve to eighteen months; and a major overhaul every four
years, taking four to five weeks and requiring twenty-two thousand
person hours of labor.
- Air traffic controllers
go through rigorous training and internship that lasts three to
four years. For every eight-hour shift, a controller is restricted
to a maximum of five or six hours actively directing traffic, with
several breaks throughout that time.
- Each plane flies right down the middle
of a private highway in the sky that is ten
miles wide. No other plane is allowed in that space.
- Standard industry policy is to avoid
all thunderstorms by at least twenty nautical
miles.
- We measure turbulence,
or "chop", in terms of gravity. Point-four g's of
force is considered "severe" and is rarely experienced
during commercial flight. But federal regulations require planes
to be able to fly without problems through at least two g's, and
today's manufacturers build planes that are tested to withstand six
to seven g's of force. Mother Nature won't be creating any
turbulence to match that.
On a flight, you may notice a number of
"unusual" sounds and sensations that are actually normal and
appropriate operations. For example:
- Cargo pallets are loaded while you are
boarding the plane. You may feel the plane
suddenly move in response to the pallets being positioned
in the cargo bay.
- You may see "clouds" emerge
from the air conditioning ducts on the lower wall
next to your seat or in the ceiling ducts. It is not smoke, it
just looks like it. Condensation occurs when the cold air from the
A/C system circulates into the hot, humid cabin. The cold air
mixing with hot, moist air causes "clouds" of
condensation.
- If you're sitting in the middle of the
airplane, you'll probably encounter more sounds
prior to takeoff and during the flight. All the flight controls
and devices on the airplane are either electrically or
hydraulically activated. Most of the hydraulic pump system's
actuators are located in the middle of the airplane in its belly,
close to the landing gear. Therefore you may hear pumps that cycle
on and off. They are designed to do that to maintain a certain
pressure. As the pressure slacks off, they pump it up again. You
may also hear other pumps being activated to energize the
hydraulic system operating the leading edge devices and trailing
edge flaps, the main landing gear and nose wheel, the spoilers,
and the speed brakes.
- Occasionally you might feel a light
bumping of the tires during takeoff or landing. Don't
worry; the plane doesn't have a flat tire! Down the center of the
runway are reflectors that are slightly raised. If the pilot is
exactly on the center line of the runway, the front nose wheel
tires will ride directly on top of the reflectors. (Many pilots
choose to move just a few inches to one side to avoid these
bumps.)
We have previously developed a self-help
program, Achieving
Comfortable Flight, that provides you with a detailed
understanding of the airline industry (See Resources).
Use that program as well as all other resources you can find to give
you the facts you need. Once you have this information, you will be
able to decide, "Do I trust this airline industry?" The
facts should convince you that airline travel is one of our safest
forms of transportation.
Let's look at two more issues
in this topic of trusting the industry. First,
given all the articles and shows on flying and on accidents, how do
you decide what to be concerned about? And, second,
just how safe is it up there in the sky?
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