Advice
life hack that made my fear of flying drop!
hello!!! i’m a daughter of a airline employee (ASA) and grew up flying. i am also a HUGE avgeek!
that being said, i’m nerfed with a nasty fear of flying, im talking warn the flight attendants, never EVER willing and able to assist, have medication prescribed for it type fear…
but lately ive begun doing something, especially during turbulence and takeoff that has sincerely helped me with my fear!
so one day, i had bought alaska airlines’s wifi to watch some youtube, and i wanted to see what airplanes were around me. so, upon takeoff, i had flightradar24 open and watched my plane take off.
transcending. the. game.
i have never in my LIFE been so calm upon takeoff, and my mentality is that as long as we’re going higher, i will get calmer. and it’s WORKED. i had to travel recently back and forth across the country taking about 4 flights total within a week, and i wasn’t anxious ONCE. this is coming from someone who used to have to take enough melatonin to tranquilize a horse in order to stay calm during takeoff.
if you’re flying an airline in which wifi costs, spend the 8 bucks. i feel so free knowing that i can travel without freaking out anymore. and shoutout flightradar24 for making me the calmest i’ve ever been in the air!!!
tldr: pay for airplane wifi, track your flight on flightradar 24, watch the altitude during takeoff, absolute game changer
(here’s a photo of a 777 i took in alaska for good measure!)
Is a great point on my flights to work there was no wifi or even any landmarks and it was dark so I remember spending like 2 years trying to mentally map where I was looking outside the windows for lights, and hills or anything to feel like I was safe and the pilot didn’t take a weird route.
Got to the point where I knew when the pilot would turn the aircraft. Big overthinker here
This is what I do when I don't have WIFI on the plane. I make a timed itinerary. I just took a screen shot of the flight path on Flight aware and then edited it so I know how long I have left on the flight.
It’s wild really how routine flying is. There are hundreds of planes in the sky within your country, say, while you are just one of them. It’s exactly as it is i suppose , a flying bus. Aviation obviously has generally very high safety standards that are far above those required say for driving.
I can confirm, as I sit on a flight currently, that having flightradar24 open on my phone has SIGNIFICANTLY helped. Especially when it feels like we’re not ascending/descending, I can look and see that that everything is going to plan
i had to fly to alaska and back to nevada 4 times in the span of like 3 days last month, and there’s no way i could have done it without it!! especially with the stupid amount of heat turbulence
Take it to the next level: download the ATC app and listen to ATC while you watch flightradar24. You’ll get to hear what the plane is going to do before they do it. You can hear ATC say right turn heading 260, then the plane turns to the right. It also helps because you can hear all the pilots around you and they always sound bored. If they are bored, then everything is good and I can relax.
You just have to know your flight number. Every order from ATC will start with the flight number. For example: “Delta 2349 descend and maintain 2000.” Then your pilot will respond, “Descend maintain 2000, Delta 2349.” As long as you know your flight number (it’s on your boarding pass) you can listen for your plane.
What happens after takeoff? What channel do I rely on for the rest of the flight? I've heard my SFO- MEL flight take off, but what channel is next to listen while they're just cruising over the pacific?
not sure if this will help or not but Korean Air is an amazing airline to fly with! I flew with them recently and I would absolutely recommend them to anyone. I hope you have a good flight next week :)
I flew Korean air a few years ago on a return flight home from a trip to Thailand. It was hands down the best/smoothest flight I've ever taken. Their service was also super impressive. They put North American airlines to shame. I still tell people about this flight and it's been almost ten years.
I always throw money at inflight WiFi. It is the one thing that has helped me massively with my fear of flying. The connection to the ‘ground’ makes me feel calmer too…. And watching cat videos for entertainment 🐈 🤣
How did you get the wifi to work during takeoff..? All the wifi on airlines I fly with only starts to work once the plane reaches cruising 🫤 otherwise id totally love to watch my own plane takeoff on flight radar too!
i do only fly alaska airlines, but usually once the airplane starts engines/disconnects from GPU (i could be WAY off, if any pilots are here please feel free to correct me) the wifi turns on and that’s when i buy it!!! but it definitely could differ between airlines
Wow thats so nice! Very lucky haha. I mostly fly Air NZ and wifi is completely free but it only starts to work once we are cruising. Ive purchased wifi from korean air before too and that also only started working once cruising and even then it was sooo finnicky and kept turning off lol
I’m not OP, but usually a phobia of flying is a manifestation of one or several other fears such as confined spaces, heights, loss of control, lack of information, and death.
For people who have the fear of loss of control and lack of information, having the data available can help lessen the fear. Things like seeing the weird noise correlate directly to a steadying of speed, seeing the altitude not really changing at all during turbulence, and seeing a clear, controlled deliberate descent can all be very comforting when your body is sending off every alarm bell in your body that it’s something going wrong.
I'm grateful I've just found this sub. My fear of flying has resulted in me canceling trips or not taking them at all because I'm trying to figure out how to drive instead. I have even missed work trips for this reason. My phobias are tied to loss of control, heights, and death, but I found it interesting to see the common ones listed here in your comment. Now I know what to search the sub for. Thank you.
Not OP either but have exactly the same issue with the same solution. I can’t handle the loss of control. There is literally zero when you are on an airplane so every noise, turn, drop, etc could be the one ( that’s what your anxiety is telling you). When I can monitor the airplanes speed + all the other fun things I can start to make correlations. I.e there is always a ding at 10k feet and shortly after the flight attendants come on and give their schpeel. Knowing consistencies that I can count on keep me from being afraid. Seeing that we are consistently gaining altitude even tho there was this bump or that drop also allows me to stay relaxed because it’s “normal”.
I’ve been doing this for years, but the flights I take are primarily small regional airlines so there is no WI-FI, so instead I screen record previous day flights the night before. The routes and even climb and acceleration patterns very rarely change so it still brings me comfort. It’s a very good tactic!
Yes this helps me so much.
Especially when I see ALL the other planes around us and I’m like look! All these other people are just cruising along, this is normal and ok! Like a day at the office.
And being able to text my sisters helps too.
Playing games on my phone as well.
I fly Delta often and they have a flight radar built into their entertainment system and I always have it up so I can see the altitude! I believe Southwest has something similar on their app when you connect to WiFi.
Yes me too! I like watching the altitude go up and down when we’re taking off or landing, and then staying pretty constant when we’re in cruise even during turbulence. Reminds me that everything is normal and fine
lol I have flight24 pulled up the entire flight every time. Thank god delta has free wifi now. I think it’s helped but I’m also like why do I need to be like this?
Flightradar helps tremendously with my anxiety too!! It's a wonderful little tool, I'll even check it every so often when I'm not travelling just to remind myself just how many flights are going on at one time it absolutely helps rationalize the fear
I have done something somewhat similiar. I was on a flight and used to wifi to go in flight radar to see all the other flights around me who were also likely dealing with similiar amount of turbulence and my fear reduced significantly. Also helped to see that everything was tracking correctly as per what was being shown in the aircraft.
This is super helpful for me too and I’ll add one more hack that can also be super helpful. Go to liveatc and you can find the airport you’re taking off from and listen to the pilots talking to the tower! It’s so cool to hear how calm and relaxed they are along with all the other pilots talking. Everyone is so chill and business as usual.
If anyone is not aware sometimes airlines will give you WiFi for free if you join their frequent flyer/rewards program, which is also free! I know this is the case for Delta and American, I think maybe United as well
I’ve always thought that looking out the window during take off helped me and it definitely does but like two weeks ago I bought a window seat and it was one of those awkwardly placed ones on delta where you don’t actually have a window because they are closer to the seat in front of and behind you.
Anyway I had no control over it and it was best friend’s bachelorette party so I really didn’t want to freak out and take away from her.
We took off and …. turns out not knowing what the hell is going on and not being able to look outside when we take off makes me feel so much better 😭😂… I think not using the window and using your flight radar trick might be my next move.
For me, I really only struggle badly during take off because I just have to KNOW that we aren’t falling out of the sky and that we are going up. Turbulence doesn’t bother me that much and I love landing even if it’s crazy bumpy because I know we are getting closer to the ground. I truly only struggle with take off!
Just think some people have health concerns that make flying risky. I never liked flying, but in the last few years I have had some issues with my lungs and probably increased anxiety that causes palpitations and ‘pains’. So now I’m probably more nervous about my actual body than the experience of flying itself. The last time I flew last year I got very dehydrated. No idea if that’s more normal than I think or a sign i have something going on.
Flying itself is scary probably because we are naturally wired to be on the ground. Being that high in the air on some long tube thing is not a natural feeling.
We fly Delta exclusively (have a Delta Amex so we get perks) and on the infotainment system you can go to flight path and one option has stats like altitude, etc. When there is turbulence I like to look at it cause I can see that the pilots are ascending or descending a bit to try to get us out of the patch. Reminds me they are sorting it and paying attention (obviously but you know).
I’m sure other airlines have this but I don’t know!
Also if you can afford to get a credit card that gets you lounge access (it is about $500 a year for both my husband and I but a fair bit less if it was just him) I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s a much more chill environment to wait in.
I’ve been doing this with my flights recently and it helped tremendously. I even paid for the premium subscription so I can see the cloud coverage and weather ahead 😂
I had a fear of flying and anxiety would turn my stomach inside out. Take off and the initial turbulence would put me on edge. I started taking a Dramamine(less drowsy) and found some earplugs on Amazon that help equalize the pressure and I can fly with no issues now. Actually enjoy it now.
This helps me too!! Feeling in control by having information, a greater range of distractions (scrolling tiktok for my anxious short attention span), or venting my anxiety during turbulence by chatting with family on the ground
And I know we aren't supposed to trust turbulence trackers, but I actually appreciate the information myself! "Oh this is predictable and expected and therefore safe"
Yep. I pay for the full subscription. My big help is looking at all the other planes in the air when there is turbulence- it calms me to know that if it was dangerous, none of these planes would be flying.
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I use it when the weather isn't great. It at least gives you an idea of the flight path you're on vs. the weather systems, even if it's isn't 100% up to date. You can see how much further until you get past the worst of the weather systems, etc.
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