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Tell her when your time is up your time is up. Sit back, and enjoy the ride.
^THIS.
You can tell her my story. I was always a nervous flyer. Had anxiety attacks for weeks before I had to fly. I was sure the plane was going to crash. I did bizarre games in my head to alleviate the anxiety that make me laugh now. One was to pray for everyone else on the plane to get to the destination safely. I figured that if my prayers for THEM were answered, why I'd be fine, because I was on the same plane!
Anyway, short version is that I was in One WTC on 9/11 when AA11 slammed into us. Thought I might be facing the moment of my death at several points, but I didn't. I lost 84 coworkers plus other people I knew but didn't know--people who worked in the shops and restaurants who died. I also have this theory that being in the vicinity of mass death does something to the human psyche, but I won't expound on that here other than to say it's the sensation of a door opening and some going through and some staying on "this side". The point is that a result of That Day is that I learned that you are going to die when you are going to die, and there isn't much you can do about it and worry and anxiety does nothing, and also that death is part of life.
To my delight, the next time I flew somewhere--a vacation to the Bahamas about two years after the attacks--I discovered that my fear of flying was gone. Not only was the fear gone, but I ENJOYED flying, and I have enjoyed flying ever since. If I die in a plane crash, I hope I enjoy the view on the way down.
Many people are afraid of turbulence also. It is an irrational fear, as in flight break ups of any plane, even small, General Aviation airplanes if very rare. The last one I remember, was ironically, Scotty Crossfield, one of the greatest pilots to ever fly was killed when he flew his Cessna 210 (IIRC) into a Thunderstorm.
Any words of wisdom here? I don't know what to tell her. I'm a little anxious too, as I've only flown twice.
Anytime you're on the ground, you've got 2000x more chance of getting injured or killed than when you're in the air. If you really want to minimize your chance of accidents, you'd spend more time in the air and less time on the ground.
Remember that the pilot and copilot have good reasons to do their jobs the best they can.
It can be a good thing to tell airline and airport employees 'It's my first time flying'. There are a lot of unwritten or hard to figure out rules of commercial flight, and an assumption from them that everyone knows what they're supposed to do. (And that those who do not are jerks). A 'Hello. How do I...?' can bring out more politeness and kindness from them than you might expect.
Driving to the airport in a car is always MUCH more dangerous than flying on a plane to the next airport.
Yeah, especially when you're driving to EWR on the NJ Turnpike!
As a matter of fact, no joke--remember John Nash. He was the schizophrenic mathematician from Princeton who was the subject of the book and movie, A Beautiful Mind. At 86, and he and his wife flew to Norway to accept an award and then flew home toi EWR, and they were killed in a taxi on the NJ Turnpike (neither wore seat belts). Someone said his last thought was likely, "What are the odds?"
As someone who went 25 years between flights (wow have things changed) let me add some insight.
TSA can be intimifating as hell. There are signs posted everywhere. Read them and pay attention to what the TSA agent is saying. They have zero sense of humor and even less so to people who do the opposite of what they are saying. Listen listen listen. They'll get through security fine if they follow those rules.
Take some gum.
Once on the plane it is cake. Again though the flight attendants have stuff to say. Listen to them. Regular flyers have been through this a million times and can recite it by wrote but someone new to flying needs to pay attention.
Once in the air relax. Pay attention to the flght attendants. If they arent stressed you shouldnt be either. I remember my first flight after 25 years. We hit some crazy turbulence. I was sure the plan was falling out of the sky. I looked at the flight attendant and she was dozing off. If she isnt worried then we're good
Your ears will clog the gum should alleviate a lot of that.
Beyond that just be concious of others. Flying is way more stressful than it needs to be these day so if you are considerate of those around you they will ne considerate of you and everything will smooth as silk
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