How can I get over my fear of flying?

How can you get over your fear of flying?

• Answer:

  I'm a pilot and have been flying since the age of 19. Funny thing is that I had a raging fear of heights when I started and I also used to have lots of those dreams where i'd find myself falling. After staring flight training, those kinds of dreams vanished and i'm no longer as afraid of heights as I used to be. However, I will add that when I first started flying my first few lessons didn't go that well and the instructor actually considered telling me that a flying career for me wasn't the best option solely because my fear of heights was a big problem. I remained dedicated because I was so interested in aviation and had been since I was little. Here's what i'd recommend: Learn as much as you can about flying. Learn about the science of what makes a airfoil fly and stay aloft. Learn about turbulence and why air moves around. Learn about the flight controls and what they do, and also learn about the countermeasures that pilots use in case something should go wrong. Finally, learn about statistics and know that flying is safer than driving. Also, if I were you i'd go to your local airport and hire a flight instructor to take you up for what's called a Discovery flight. These kinds of flights are normally for people who are considering flight lessons, but they can also be used for facing your fear of flying (tell the instructor that you are godly afraid and trying to overcome it). Doing this will be good because the instructor will let you fly the airplane and explain things as you go along. What you'll learn may surprise you - that airplanes are inherently stable and they can fly themselves without any input from you on the flight controls. Really, there's very little that can actually go wrong which you cannot recover from. I really enjoy flying. Once I got over my fear, I went on to get an instrument rating (flying with no visual references, such as in clouds) and even applied and was accepted into military flight training after college. Everyone agrees - once you conquer the fear of flying, you'll end up loving it.