TIPS FOR NERVOUS FLYERS (FROM A PILOT)

This is not sponsored by Apple. If you are a nervous flyer, you are not alone. 33 to 40 percent of people are scared to fly, so if you're part of that group, I want to give you five tips to make your next trip a little more comfortable. Tip number one, arrive early because there's no need to be rushed when you get to the airport. If your bag is a couple pounds overweight or the line at security is longer than you expected, that's only going to increase your anxiety. And once you get through security, you'll have plenty of time to grab some food, maybe grab a glass of wine, and sit and watch the airplanes land and take off. While you're doing that, think about how many people are on those airplanes. If every airplane has 100 people, and say you see 20 airplanes take off and land, that's 2,000 people that just went flying, and if they can do it, you can do it too. Tip number two, tell the crew. If you're nervous about flying, tell the flight attendants, and maybe even ask to go up and talk to the pilots. If you can put a face to who's flying your airplane, sometimes that can ease your anxiety. And just remember, pilots want to get home to their families just as much as you do. Tip number three, turbulence. A lot of anxiety can stem from a previous flight where there was really bad turbulence or the turbulence you're currently in. And I'd like to tell you, the airplane cannot just fall out of the sky because it's too turbulent. Airplanes have been designed by structural engineers to penetrate really severe turbulence. And we have special training, we have speeds that we fly at to go through bad turbulence. So if you hear the engines spool down a little bit when we're going through some turbulence, that's because we're slowing down to our turbulence penetration speed. And that means we're trying to make the flight a little bit more comfortable until we can find a better altitude or a better area to escape the turbulence. Have you ever heard pilots say, flight attendants, take your jump seats? That can sound very scary, but it's really for their safety and for your The carts that they push around with the sodas and the food on it, they weigh up to 300 pounds. And you don't want one of those flying up into the air and landing on you because that could cause some serious injuries. So if you're in bad turbulence, keep your seatbelt on, but know that the wings are not going to fall off the airplane. And if you're worried about dying in a plane crash, the odds of dying in a plane crash are one in 11 million. The odds of dying in a car crash are, get this, one in 103, which makes me never want to drive ever again. Tip number four, training. Pilots and flight attendants spend countless hours training emergencies, how to open the door, how to evacuate the airplane, even how to fly around on one engine. Did you know that we can lose an engine as soon as we take off and fly around all day and come back and land very safely? That literally wouldn't raise our heart rate. And you can rest assured that in the event of an emergency, we've got everything. Finally, tip number five, distractions. Bring distractions. Don't count on the airplane's entertainment system to be working. Bring movies on your iPad, bring movies on your iPhone, bring movies on your MacBook. This is not sponsored by Apple. Bring books, bring knitting needles, bring crossword puzzles, bring noise canceling headphones, bring an eye mask. And if all else fails, start talking to the person next to you. I hope this helps you plan your next trip and go somewhere awesome. You deserve it. Have a great day. We'll see you on board.