DVD#4 - How Flying Works - Airplane Information 2

This DVD continues on with airplane information to help ease the imagination.

Takeoff

Capt. Bunn explains how easy take-off is...you go straight down the runway, at V1, you take your hand off the throttle and put it on the wheel.  And then there is another speed called Vr and this is the point when the nose comes back.  Then the nose comes up about 12 degrees above the horizon, the airplane comes off the runway and then the pilot is aiming for a speed called V2 which is the speed they climb upward (about 160-170mph), once they get into the air.  They fly at V2 to go up as fast as they can as high off the runway and then they tell the co-pilot they're going to reduce power and they cut the thrust by about 1/2.  Now the plane can't fly as steeply so they bring the nose down in order to make less noise for people living near the airport.

When the airplane nose comes down, it's like being in an elevator...you feel a little lightheaded.  I know this feeling well and it scares me every time, but this explanation helps it make more sense.  :)  The plane is NOT falling, it's just slowing down it's climb.

Takeoff is Simple

Capt. Bunn tells a quick story of how he used to run his program at an airport and at one time had a class member go into the simulator and attempt to simulate a takeoff of a Boeing 747.  He said it took this person just TWO minutes to get the takeoff correct.  That's how easy takeoff is.

Stair Stepping

Once the plane takes off, it may be cleared by air traffic control to continue on up to cruising altitude of around 33,000 feet.  But what if there is some traffic in the way?  The plane may not be able to do a straight climb.  Instead, you may climb up to 11,000 feet, level off for a while, climb to 17,000 feet, level off for a while, climb to 23,000 feet, level off for a while, then climb to 33,000 feet.  This is HUGE for me.  I had no idea this happened.  Before Capt. Bunn even says it, I know what this feels like...each time the plane levels off, there is a feeling one gets in the plane.  If this keeps continuing, it can be scary.  But now it makes sense!  It's similar to an elevator going up and stopping at floors.    As the plane levels out, you feel lightheaded, then when you start going up again, you feel heavier in your seat and you hear more noise from the engines.  This same thing happens as you come down from cruising altitude.  Stair stepping up, stair stepping down.  Completely routine.

Why Engines Last So Long

When engines are made, they are made for both civilian and military purposes.  Capt. Bunn gives some information about how engines are rated.  And how to make things simple, the engine manufacturers say that the engine operates at 100% power.  Military aircraft run the engines at that 100% power in peace time.  In war time, they push the engines to 103-104%.  But commercial airlines use 93% power for takeoff and 88% for cruising.  Capt. Bunn states the engine is "just completely loafing" and that's why engines last forever and are not under stress.  

Drop 15 Feet Onto Strut

Capt. Bunn shows a picture of a plane strut and explains that the landing gear is built so strongly that it could be lifted 15-20 feet off the ground and just dropped to the ground hundreds of time and do absolutely no damage whatsoever to the airplane.  That's how strong they are built.  You couldn't do that to your car once.

Dispatch

Ahhh...weather.  A biggee of mine.  Capt. Bunn says that many people he works with in this program are afraid of weather, but that it's something that is planned for in every flight.  He explains there is a dispatcher who plans the flight.  Every airline has an FAA licensed and certified dispatcher assigned to each flight.  The dispatcher's job is to look into the computerized flight planner which has the winds coded into it for the plane's route and then decide which is the best route to take from point A to point B.  The dispatcher then has to determine if there is any weather along the way which could cause problems.  If the weather is not good at the destination airport, there is always an alternate airport designated for landing if needed.  To figure the fuel of the flight, there must be enough for the standard flight PLUS any needed to go to the alternate airport, PLUS enough to hold for 30 minutes in addition to an extra 10% in the mail fuel allotted in case the winds slow down the plane a bit.  There is a lot of extra fuel in the airplane.  

At any time in the flight, the pilot can punch in the code for an airport and 8 seconds later it will tell the pilot what the weather is like for that airport and it tells them what the forecast is as well.

The dispatcher also checks NOTAMs which stands for Notices to Airmen and what this tells them is whether or not there is any equipment at any of the potential airports for the flight or even along the way that might affect the safety of the flight.  So once the dispatcher completely plans the flight and the pilot reviews this, both the dispatcher AND the captain of the flight must certify the flight plan.  Both have to sign that the flight can be done safely considering all the factors involved in the flight.

Why did I actually think that pilots just showed up for work on got on the plane and flew it without having actually researched each trip?  I can see now how that couldn't possibly be true, but I think I actually believed that in the past.  The more you know...the less the anxiety!  :)

Complete Flight

So...moving on from the last section...the flight is certified and now the pilots are approaching the plane.  One of the pilots is going to enter the airplane and check all the switches and gauges.  Another pilot is going to check the outside of the airplane.  The pilot inside the plane is also going to check the maintenance log to see what has been worked on the plane and make sure everything has been signed off.  Then both pilots sit down at their respective stations (captain on the left, co-pilot on the right) and they each go through all the switches they are responsible for.  Pilots have a specific pattern they go through when looking at their switches.  After this is done, according to the pattern, one of the pilots takes out the checklist.  One pilot then reads the first item on the checklist (which will have a switches name), the other pilot looks at that switch, touches that switch and says where that switch is and it has to match up.  The pilots continue this pattern through the entire checklist.

Next, they call air traffic control and they find out if the plan the dispatcher filed with air traffic control is okay with air traffic control (it almost always is).  They will then give approval for the flight.  They also give a departure routing which will be different depending on which runway is used.  Then they are given an initial altitude that they are cleared to fly to.  This way if there is any loss of radio communication for a moment, the pilots know what altitude they absolutely have clearance to fly to.  

Then the pilots make sure all the doors are closed and check with the flight attendants to make sure they're ready to go and check with the ground crew and then the pilots start the engines.  The plan is pushed back by the ground crew.  Capt. Bunn then goes on to mention that sometimes people get concerned because they see a light flash or the lights flicker during this process.  YES!  I know exactly what he means!  But he explains that this is not a problem because sometimes the plane is switching from external to internal power.  The plane may be plugged into a local utility when on the runway and sometimes, just like when you unplug something at home, other lights will flicker.  THIS again is HUGE information for me!!  :)

Sometimes people are concerned because it takes a while to get the engine to start.  He says there are various reasons for this, but once the engine is started, IT IS STARTED.  There is no need to have any concern about the safety of the engine once it is started.  This again is a big deal for me because, of course, I have driven many cars and at times, the engine is hard to start and then it runs for a minute or two and dies again or dies at an intersection.  This doesn't happen with plane engines.  Planes are safer than cars! And I drive a car almost EVERY DAY!  

Once the engine is started, you get clearance to taxi to the holding point on the runway, then they switch to the tower frequency, they will tell you when you are cleared onto the runway to either hold or takeoff.  You line up with the runway...if you're cleared to take off, you push the throttles up and head down the runway and takeoff as we have learned.  

All the way through the flight, the pilots are monitoring the weather and listening to air traffic control.  All the pilots in the same area are on the same frequencies so if there is some turbulence ahead, another pilot will mention it which will give air traffic control some time to figure out if there is some other path the plane can take to get around it.  When you get to destination airport area, you check the weather and the runway, then you're cleared to descend.  If the weather is fine, the pilot can make a visual landing.  If the weather is less than perfect, the pilots have other options.

Until about the 1980s there were different rules about how low the clouds could be when it came to landing the plane, but now there is new technology that allows the clouds to be much lower to the runway and still have a safe landing.  The clouds can be about 100ft above the runway and there be just 1/8 of a mile of visibility for landing.  In this case though, the airplane is on autopilot which is hooked up to signals from the runway touch point.  There are actually two or three autopilots plus a device that compares the autopilots to make sure they're all showing the same information.

There is also something called CAT III which was developed primarily by the British as they tend to have pretty bad weather in London.  Capt. Bunn says CAT III has such precision in sending the signals from the runway and you have 2 or 3 autopilots each running from a different power source that the pilot is allowed to touch down on the runway without the pilot having seen it.  GULP! Capt. Bunn goes on to say this is rare and that in his career he only made 2 CAT III landings.  He admits that for pilots, it's an eerie thing to have landed without seeing the runway and having the airplane controlling the pilot, BUT...it works if necessary and is totally safe.

Capt. Bunn goes on to say that all of this is exact and precise and that pilots don't need to fudge anything.  They don't have to land faster or earlier.  They get paid exactly the same no matter where they land.  It's not like in a car when the speed limit is 60 and we drive 70.  If the speed limit was 60 in a plane, they go 60.  Period.

Who Does Landing?

The captain and co-pilot switch off landings so each makes every other landing. Most co-pilots are captain qualified.  On overseas flights, that is a requirement.  Capt. Bunn then brings up the idea of alcohol.  Years ago, pilots would work with each other if they knew another pilot had been drinking because they knew they'd be fired if they were caught.  They just wouldn't have that pilot take the controls during a flight.  However, over the years, corporations began to take a different view and what they set up was that if there was an alcohol problem, they would work with the pilot instead of immediately firing them.  Thus, the union worked with the company and they quit covering for pilots and would instead turn them into the union and knew they would get help and not be fired. 

When a pilot doesn't feel well and calls in sick there are always other pilots on standby to take over.

Noises

Yay!  Noises!  This is another big issue for me so I'm looking forward to some discussion on this.

* When you're taxiing out, sometimes you'll hear groaning sounds and Capt. Bunn says that's just because the brakes make those noises in different temperatures.  Nothing to worry about.  I know my car brakes make noises based on temperature as well and it doesn't keep me from driving my car.

* When the plane is going down the runway, the nose gear is sometimes bumping against lights imbedded in the runway and you hear it get faster as you go down the runway.  This is normal.  I can relate this to driving over a bridge and the expansion joints.  A lot of pilots will move the plane just off center so you don't feel this, but if you do it's completely normal.

* When the nose gear goes up and the main gear goes off the runway and the strut goes out to full travel, it makes a clunk that you might hear if you're sitting near the gear area.  But then as the pilot calls for the gear to go up, you'll hear some noise that sounds like water is going through pipes because hydraulic fluid is running through actuators to bring the gear up and then you hear a "ker-plunk" as the gear plunks into place and then another clunk as the doors that cover the gear clunk into place and lock. 

* As the flaps on the wing go up, you hear a noise like a blender.  The mechanism that runs the flaps up and down sounds like a blender.

* On the leading edge of the wings, there are flaps to make them bigger when landing.  As the flaps are moving, it sounds (or sort of feels) like you're driving over a steel grated road.  I imagine this to be like driving over patches on the Hood Canal Floating Bridge.  Another time you'd get rumbling would be if air traffic control needs the plane to descend steeply or slow down, there are panels that go straight up on the wing called speed brakes which are also used after the airplane lands to get rid of the lift to put more weight on the wheels.  If the speed brakes go up, you'll feel a rumbling (and/or hear it).

Chimes

Ah, I love this...I read a book prior to flying two years ago that discussed the chimes on a plane and I was obsessed with them.  Capt. Bunn says that every airline has different signals so you can't depend on a standard number of chimes.  He says "Dont' assume ringing of chimes means anything at all".  Generally, if the captain wants to discuss a situation with the flight attendants, he or she will call the lead flight attendant into the cockpit and then brief that flight attendant who will then go back and brief the other flight attendants.  After that is done, the pilot will make an announcement.  People say that seems to take a lot of time and Capt. Bunn says it does because when there is an "emergency" on a plane, there is generally nothing immediate that needs to happen.  This makes me think of discussing cesarean birth with childbirth classes.  Most people imagine what they see on TV...people rushing, tension, stress and chaos.  That's not how it generally happens.  Capt. Bunn states that "Emergencies and abnormal situations are dealt with slowly and methodically".  He goes on to say if you see a flight attendant rushing about, it may have nothing to do with the plane but instead with flight service.

Safest Place to Sit

The safest place to sit on airplane is at an emergency exit.  Impact is rarely what causes people to die in an airplane accident...it's instead, usually smoke.  Thus the exits are the way out.  He mentions there is a $50 smoke mask you can buy and take with you on the flight.  I am going to look that up.  Just one more little thing for me to feel comfortable about.

What does it mean when the seat belt sign is turned on?  Another big question of mine!!  It usually just means there is some turbulence, but "it NEVER means that there is any danger, whatsoever".  I'm repeating that for myself, "It NEVER means that there is any danger, whatsoever".  

Break A Wing?

Many people get concerned that a wing might break in turbulence.  Wings are made to bend.  Capt. Bunn states that he could go out to a plane and with his hand pull on the wing and flex it.  It is supposed to flex and that's what makes it strong.  Capt. Bunn shares a story of the 747 and how Boeing decided to see what it would take to break a wing.  In order to break the wing they had to bend the wing at the tip between 28-29 FEET before it would break.  Capt. Bunn says that you won't see 28-29 INCHES of flex on an airplane wing.

GPWS

Another safety device Capt. Bunn shares to provide us with some confidence.  The Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS).  The GPWS gives a warning...a flashing red light and a voice actually says "Pull Up! Pull Up!  Pull Up!" .  This was implemented in the 70s and since that time, controlled flight into the ground has been taken care of. 

Lightning

Yay!  Another one of my fears being addressed...just one after the other.  :)

Capt. Bunn says to think about our car and how it is insulated from the ground by the rubber tires, so you're safe in your car when you're in lightning.  All you need is insulation.  In a plane, air in the insulation.  Lightning is not a problem for an airplane either.  IF lightning does strike a plane, you'll just get a little burn mark on the entrance and exit points.  Momentarily it could case the lights to blink or go out because there are protective circuits that will shut down the lights but they'll come right back on.  Thus, lightning is simply not a problem for the airplane. 

Just like that... :)

Reviewing Airplane Controls

Capt. Bunn reviews what has been discussed by showing a real airplane at the museum.  He shows the wings (and how he can simply pull on them) and how they work.  For the visual learner this is quite helpful! 

Airplane Simulation

Capt. Bunn and his camera man are now sitting in a simulator.  He can now show exactly what it looks like in the cockpit.  He shows hands on the throttle until V1 and then removing his hand off the throttle and put it on the wheel, at Vr, he brings the wheel back and the nose goes up in the air and shows how he brings the plane up to about 800ft and pulls back the throttle while pushing the nose down and how it's all routine.

He then gets a close shot of the instruments and gauges so we can see what the pilot sees and how the pilot knows exactly the descent rate and how to land safely.

Body Tension

Capt. Bunn is now sitting in a simulated plane seat to discuss body tension.  He discusses that we sit in a 1G position all the time.  When we get tense on a plane, he discusses again how some of that weight gets put in our legs and arms.  He shows a great visual of someone tense in a seat with legs tightened and arms gripping the arm rest.  You can actually see him lift off the seat.  It makes complete sense!  This makes us feel like we are going down!  As he discussed earlier, he shows us how to recalibrate our instrument by taking our feet off the floor and taking our arms off the arm rests (he has his crossed across his chest) before the plane takes off.  Then as you are flying, if you feel like the plane is falling, you re-assume this position and compare with the calibration you did on the ground to help you know what the plane is really doing.  

And that ends this DVD.  So much great information!!!  And still 7 DVDs to go!  But, wow, these first four have done an enormous amount for me AND I had already read his entire book, so even after having read the book, these DVDs were worth it!!  

The next four DVDs are all about The Control of Anxiety.  And I'm ready!  :)

DVD#3 - How Flying Works - Airplane Information 1

As I read through Capt. Bunn's SOAR book this information about how flying works was super helpful for me in reducing some anxiety, thus I'm looking forward to going through these next 2 DVDs.  :)

This video starts at The New England Air Museum at Bradley Airport near Hartford, CT.  

Everything you do and everything you don't do has risk.  As we discussed in the past DVDs, there is far more risk to many other things in life than flying.  Capt. Bunn reminds us that some of this may cause anxiety, at first, as he discusses some things about flying specifics, but to stick with him because ultimately, the goal is to ease the anxiety.  The more you learn about flying, the more you limit your imagination and the more you limit your imagination, the less anxiety you'll feel.  Sounds good to me.  Lets do this! :)

Capt. Bunn says that if you were to go to a movie about some sort of airplane disaster with a pilot, you might be anxious during the movie while the pilot would likely be bored because the stuff that Hollywood makes up simply doesn't happen.  This is how I feel when watching TV shows depicting childbirth.  :)

Left Brain, Right Brain

Left brain processes words while the right brain processes images.  Emotions are controlled in the right brain.  The left brain has sequential logic, the right side has intuitive logic.  The left brain can process words and can understand why a plane stays in the air.  The right brain says, hey...that's just a lot of words...what I know is that something heavy is floating in the air and nothing is holding it up!  The left brain understands statistics and how unlikely it is that a plane will crash while the right brain sees the ONE crash and focuses on it.  

Capt. Bunn then takes an imaginary billboard and fills it with 10,000,000 imaginary blocks.  If it's a 1 in 10,000,000 chance of a crash, that block would be a pencil dot in the middle of the billboard.  That's how the left brain sees it anyway.  The right brain sees the ONE and fills up the entire billboard with that ONE crash.  We have to control that right brain imagination and as we learn more about airplanes, we'll be able to do that! Good...because my right brain is VERY active!  ;)

F100 Verses 707

Capt. Bunn is standing in front of an F100 which is the plane he flew in the Air Force.  He discussed this plane in an earlier CD.  He then has a model of a Boeing 707 which was the plane he flew for Pan Am airlines.  He shows the difference between the two planes and explains there are backup systems on commercial planes.

People Only Suffer From Imagination

As discussed in prior CDs...we suffer from the imagination, not reality.

Limiting Imagination

Much of what we fear about happening on airplanes, can't happen.

The goal here is to show what can't go wrong with an airplane, what can go wrong with an airplane and then what can be done about those things.

Plane is a Glider

This was an important point that I took away from the book.  If the engines quit on a plane...the airplane is still a glider.  The engines just push it forward, they don't hold it up in the air.  So, if the engines quit at 30,000 feet...you take the 30 (in 30,000) and multiply it by 3 to get 90.  The airplane will glide for 90 miles in any direction and there is likely 10, 20, or 30 airports that you can land at in those 90 miles.

In cruise, there is hardly any risk.  Pilots can't even conceive of any risk. But people afraid of flying see this as terrifying because they can't see anything holding the plane up.

ATC (Air Traffic Control) and TCAS

Planes fly at different altitudes and ATC puts an imaginary electronic "egg" around each plane in all directions and doesn't let another airplane into that "egg".  IF the planes do happen to enter each other's space, a report is sent to the FAA in Washington and discipline takes place.  However, pilots felt as though there needed to be more control for them so they lobbied Congress to get a device put on the plane which makes sure that even if ATC makes a mistake, the pilots wouldn't run into another plane.  In 1991 it became law to have a device on all US Airlines called TCAS which tells a pilot when a plane comes within 5 miles (plane turns from green to yellow on screen) and another withing 1 mile (plane turns from yellow to red on screen).  If the computer and TCAS realize there may be a concern for collision, it tells one airplane to climb and another to descend so that there's no chance of collision.  Before TCAS there were two collisions between an airliner and private plane.  Since TCAS, there have been none.

Turbulence

Okay...here we go...this is when my heart starts to race a little...

Pilots have no issues with turbulence because they know that turbulence is no problem for an aircraft.

Reasons for turbulence....

* The sun heating up the earth causing air currents (get these more often in the desert like Phoenix and Las Vegas)

* The sun causing moisture in the air to build up in to clouds.  Because of the build up of moisture, there is a circulation of air going up and down in the clouds and if you fly a plane through that when you go into the part going up, the airplane gets bumped up and when you come out the other side where the air is going down, you get bumped down.

* When there is a strong wind going across the surface, it rubs by trees and buildings and the earth.  When you take off and fly in to that type of air you get some turbulence.

NONE of these are a problem!

One kind of things associated with turbulence, wind shear, CAN be a problem, BUT now we have doppler radar and if the wind shear is of a magnitude that it could be a problem for the airplane, they simply shut down the airport until the problem goes away.

CAT (Clear Air Turbulence) and Earth Rotation

How is CAT created.  At the center of the earth is the widest circumference...about 25,000 miles.  New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco are north of that, and countries in South America are below the equator.  At those points, it's less than 25,000 miles.  The earth rotates and there is centrifugal force.  The air which is held against the planet by gravity is spun away from the planet, by the centrifugal force.  At the equator, more than any other place, the centrifugal force causes the air to go away from the planet.  But then it loses it's momentum and wants to come back down but it can't come down at the equator because there is always more coming up, so it migrates north or south.  At the equator, the speed of the air is roughly 1,000mph (which is roughly the equator's speed).  More northern or southern elevations may have air spinning at 800mph.  When the faster air, hits the slower rotation, it causes a jet stream.  The jet stream goes from the West to the East in the Northern Hemisphere and there's a second stream in the Southern Hemisphere.  But it isn't straight...it sort of looks more like a roller coaster.  If you're flying from West to East, pilots will try to get into the jet stream because it will get the plane to the destination more quickly and more economically.  If you're trying to go West, you try to stay north or south of the jet stream in order to not run straight into the winds going the other direction.  If you're right IN the jet stream, the air is smooth, but just outside the jet stream when there is fast air moving against air that is not so fast, that's where you get turbulence.  Pilots try to fly higher or lower to get out of turbulence.

Holy smokes....that's awesome information for my brain!!

Fast and Slow Moving Air

The air in the middle of the jet stream is all moving at the same speed.  The air just on the edge of the air stream is being made turbulent.  Capt. Bunn shows an example of the air creating sort of ball bearings and so when the plane flies into it, it gets bumped up on one side and bumped down on the other side, but over and over and over...but ONLY A FRACTION OF AN INCH even though it may seem like a lot more.  It usually doesn't even register in the cockpit.

Up Down

Capt. Bunn draws a diagram that looks like a mountain range with ups and down and peaks at the top of the up and bottom of the down to depict turbulence, but says we probably don't even feel the ups (because whoever got hurt falling up, he says.  :) ).  We are concerned with the downs and because we don't notice the ups, we just feel like we're falling down, down, down.  But in reality, we're still in exactly the same place.  The best thing you can do in turbulence is to look for the ups not just the downs.  Or whenever you notice an up, expect a down.  What otherwise feels like falling thousands of feet is movement of less than an inch.

Fly By The Seat Of Your Pants

One of the things that happens in turbulence is that you get tense and tighten up your body. You put tension into your arms and legs and you press down and without realizing it, you take some weight off the seat and this can make you feel like you're falling.  This is SUCH good information for me because I can actually feel that sensation right this minute in my imagination and know how it makes me feel.  Ideally this knowledge will help me experience it differently on my upcoming flight.  Capt. Bunn's recommendation is to "calibrate our instruments".  When you sit in your seat, before the airplane is moving at all, lift up your arms off the arm rests and legs off the floor.  Memorizr what it feels like to sit in the airplane with arms and legs lifted and no weight anywhere but in the seat.  Then if you're on the plane, feeling as though it's going down, lift up your arms and legs and you'll find that the plane is either slowly descending or flying level but not falling like you think it is.

Dr. Tim Johnson Maneuver

Okay, I found this to be hysterically funny...the Dr. Tim Johnson maneuver is self-titled by Dr. Tim Johnson himself (from Good Morning America).  He says that when he gets on a plane, he bounces up and down like riding a horse because that negates the movement of the plane.  I don't know if I can do that for four hours.  ;)  But I can see how it could be useful.  If nothing else, I just love that there are other people in the world designing their own ways of feeling better on a plane.  

Being Sure in Turb

Planes are totally safe in turbulence.  Capt. Bunn suggests checking out the Hurricane Hunters website (hurricanehunters.com/welcome.htm) because these people fly commercially built planes directly into hurricanes and they hold together just fine.  Airplanes can take several times the amount of force that any turbulence can produce.  Capt. Bunn then tells a story that stuck out to me in the book as well.  It was something I had never considered prior to reading his book.  He mentioned that it takes 15-20 seconds for the pilot to unbuckle themselves to get out of their seat to go use the first class bathroom.  They look for the light they have in the cockpit that tells them the bathroom is free or full...however by the time they get unbuckled, a previously free bathroom may now be full...so when do they go to the bathroom?  During turbulence when the seatbelt light is on.  Capt. Bunn says he's never had a problem using the bathroom during turbulence in all his years of flying.  He did mention that you wouldn't want to use the bathroom in the back of the plane because it moves around more than any other part of the plane.

How Much Does the Plane Move?

Another technique that can be done of the plane to help with understanding how much a plane moves is to go over to the sink, fill up a cup halfway with water and hold the cup over your head with both hands over the sink and as fast as you can, shove your hands down into the sink.  Notice that for a fraction of a second, the water will be 2-3 feet above the cup as that's what happens when you pull the rug out from under water.  

Then try a similar technique on the airplane.  Put down your tray table, take a cup, put it on your tray table, the tray table will go wherever the airplane goes and so will your cup.  If the airplane drops a foot, the water is going to be a foot above the cup...if it drops 3 feet, it's going to be 3 feet above your cup.  However, it's unlikely that anyone has ever seen anything like that.  You may have seen water slosh out of your cup but that's because the plane is moving just a slight amount. I absolutely LOVE this visual.  It is a very effective one for the way my brain works! :)

Capt. Bangma

Capt. Bunn tells a story of when he was flying for Pan Am and flying to Tokyo on 13 hour flights.  He flew with a pilot by the name of Capt. John Bangma.  On these long flights, there's lots of time to talk and Capt. Bangma asked Capt. Bunn what people are afraid of when it comes to flying.  He explained that turbulence was the big thing and no matter how much Capt. Bunn explained it to Capt. Bangma, he simply couldn't understand it.  So, Capt. Bangma finally said he could fix people's issues with turbulence and explained that when he was a Jr. Pilot, he got the flights no one wanted and those were primarily flying cargo through Central America in the middle of the night with no radar with airplanes that couldn't get above storms.  These planes through right through storms and they creaked and groaned and moved about and although he never felt as though they were comfortable flights, because they were simply bumpy, he learned that pretty much, planes could fly through anything.  Thus, Capt. Bunn shares this story to give us yet another story to carry in our minds when it comes to turbulence.  He says a plane can handle anything nature can provide.

Turb Levels

Light Turbulence is from 1.0 - 1.2 Gs

Moderate Turbulence is from 1.2 - 1.3 Gs

Severe Turbulence is from 1.3 - 1.6Gs

The airplane is built to handle 2.5Gs without doing ANY damage to the plane and up to 5Gs with maybe some bending of aluminum or popping of rivets, but the plane will stay together.

In severe turbulence, the plane is moving up and down quite a bit and you might not be able to read something in front of you, but he also says that it is so rare that he doesn't feel anyone will run across it.

He suggests getting a sticky note and writing "If I can read this, it is not yet time to worry" and put that sticky note on the back of the seat in front of you.  You will be able to read it in both Light and Moderate Turbulence and that's likely to be the only turbulence people run into.

Jet Engine Simplicity

Capt. Bunn tells a story to discuss the likelihood of an engine failure.  He shares a story of having dinner with about a dozen other Pan Am pilots while they had a layover in Frankfurt.  He asked them if any of them had experienced an engine failure.  He said all of them had had experiences with an engine with high temperature or vibrations and they had to shut down the engine to make sure the engine wasn't damaged but none of them had experienced an engine failure.  Capt. Bunn believes one could talk to 100 pilots and find that none of them had experienced an engine failure.  

ETOPS

ETOP is a program that Boeing designed to start building planes with 2 engines because engines had become so reliable, 4 were no longer needed.  One of tests was that Boeing required it's 767 fleet to fly 2,000,000 hours with NO engine failures before planes could fly overseas with just 2 engines.  At the beginning, the planes always stayed within 90 minutes of land so there was always some airport at which to land, but then they were able to fly further from land.

Capt. Bunn discusses household light bulbs to demonstrate 2,000,000 hours.  He mentions that it's very unusual for 2 light bulbs in the same light to burn out at the same time.  He says light bulb packages general say that a light bulb can last for about 850 hours and still you never see two burn out at the same time, thus, the chance of 2 engines failing at the same time over 2,000,000 hours is "incomprehensible".  And airplanes fly just fine on one engine.

Engine Tracking

As engines operate over several years, it starts getting a little less miles per gallon.  Thus, there are instruments in the airplane that constantly monitor the fuel consumption, the temperatures, and thrust in the engine.  These readings are constantly being sent to a computer on the ground and if there's any change, it's picked up before there's a failure with the engine.  

As I'm sitting here typing this, I think to myself, "Okay...but what if a bird hits an engine?"  We've all heard those stories.  And then, as though Capt. Bunn truly IS in my head, he goes on to say, "Some people ask, what if a bird hits an engine".... Ha!  He goes on to say that engines are built so that they can handle a bird.  He mentions a plane that went down 40 years ago because of a bird in the engine but he reminds us that this was FORTY years ago with different engines.  He says the engines now can handle a bird.  "It doesn't do the bird any good" ;) but the engine can handle it.

Aircraft Maintenance

How is an airplane maintained?  Capt. Bunn mentions that in the past, after a certain number of miles, an airplane would be removed from service and completely overhauled.  However, now airlines have maintenance facilities at airports so when a plane is staying overnight in one of the major airports, small maintenance is taking place.  Ultimately, about every three years the plane is completely overhauled but it is done in increments.  This allows the plane to stay in service, but be continually maintained and overhauled.  There are times when the plane is brought into a hangar and is completely x-rayed and they do something called "dye-checking" which allows them to see if there are any external cracks in the plane.  Capt. Bunn goes on to mention that as aluminum gets older, it actually gets stronger.  

Statistics

Capt. Bunn goes back to the left brain/right brain issue and explains why sometimes statistics just don't work.  Statistics don't remove the emotional response.  If the left brain is told there is a plane that crashes every 1,000,000 flights, those are good odds.  If it's told there is a plane that crashes in one of every 10,000,000 flights, that's better and if told there is a plane that crashes in one of every 100,000,000 flights, that is even better.  But the right brain sees this differently.  When it looks at the first plane, it sees ONE crash.  When it looks at the second plane, it sees ONE crash and when it looks at the third plane, it sees ONE crash.  The right brain sees it all as the same.

He goes on to say that we're going to do some exercises to help with that right brain issue, but the one thing he repeats is that he flew for Pan Am for 30 years and knows countless pilots and flight attendants and not one has even been scratched in an accident.

Dynamic Stability

One of the things people worry about is the airplane turning upside down.  This is not a huge concern of mine, but I do have this unrealistic belief that if everyone moves to one side of the plane, it could turn over.  

Capt. Bunn starts with a car...he says if you go out to the parking lot and start going around in circles with your wheel turned all the way to the right, if you let go of the wheel, the car will straighten out because the wheel is put on a car with a certain geometry so when you let go of the wheel, it will go straight.  Then he mentions a bicycle and explains a similar thing.  Moving on to an airplane, he explains exactly how the wings are put on a plane in sort of a V shape...in order to turn, you have to put some force on the wing.  The reason a plane doesn't flip end over end is because the tail fins are like wings on an arrow.  This makes the plane "dynamically stable" which means the tendency of a vehicle to go straight ahead and to require FORCE on the controls to do otherwise.  Dynamic stability makes it impossible for the plane to keep turning when the pilots release pressure on the controls and makes "tipping over" impossible in a plane.

How the Wing Works

A wing is shaped like a very long oval.  Air goes over and below the wing.  We live on a planet with 12 miles of air molecules that are constantly being pulled down by gravity.  Air molecules get squeezed the closer they get to earth.  When a plane flies through air molecules, the ones that go under the wing are compressed and pushing out and up on the wing.  The ones that go over the wing can actually stretch out, so those air molecules on the bottom give lift to the wing.   The wing can be adjusted slightly up or down to change the air pressure when flying stable or taking off or descending.

V1

Now we're talking about takeoff (ugh...I do NOT enjoy takeoff).  Capt. Bunn mentions in aviation, in order to be safe, there always has to be a way out.  So, he draws a birds-eye view of a runway.  They are typically about 10,000 feet long (about 2 miles).  They were built for 707s and DC-8s which didn't have as much power as modern planes.  These modern planes really only need runways about 5,000-6,000 feet long.  So,there's a lot of extra runway that isn't usually necessary, but is nice to have if needed.

Pilots know the weight of the airplane, the temperature, the winds...all the important things that affect the performance of an airplane.  And the pilot determines how much runway they need in order to take off.  If the pilot is taking off and needs to abort the take-off they generally have plenty of room to stop the plane because the runway is so long.  But what if the runway is shorter than 10,000 feet?  Pilots calculate something called V1.  V1 is a speed which tells a pilot that they can accelerate the speed to a certain point on the runway and if the engine fails they can still stop with the amount of runway they have.  But it also tells them how much runway they have to be able to take off with just one engine.

Capt. Bunn explains the process of V1 and how until V1, the pilot has his/her hand on the throttle because he or she will stop the plane until V1.  The co-pilot announces V1 when it arrives (usually around 120mph) and the pilot takes his/her hand off the throttle because now if anything goes wrong, they will still fly.  There is no thinking in this situation.  It's just a simple, clear decision.  The decision of when one will stop or fly in the situation of an engine failure during takeoff is made before you even get on the plane.  If the takeoff happens, the plane will just come back around and land when they have the whole runway available to them.  Again, the airplane flies fine on just one engine.

Sara Lee

Sara Lee was a woman in an early fear of flying course that Capt. Bunn was part of years ago.  Sara Lee asked him when the "best" time was to be afraid of flying...what was the most dangerous moment?  Capt. Bunn went through each step in the flight from take-off and all that we learned above, to flying and how we've already learned that there is nothing to be afraid of while cruising and then landing which is also safe and proceeded to tell her that there was simply no way he could tell her there was any reason to be afraid.  Simple as that.  :)

So, Sara Lee's question was "What's the most intelligent time to be afraid when flying?"  Capt. Bunn's answer? "There isn't one." 

And that's DVD #3.  I have made my 1/2 hour phone appt with Capt. Bunn for New Year's Eve.  I hope to be through another 3 DVDs by then and am looking forward to speaking with him personally.  I feel fairly confident in saying, at this moment, that I'm feeling more comfortable with flying right now and I haven't even got to the exercise part of the program.  I'm hoping that's a good sign of things to come!  :)

DVD #2 Psychology of Flight Anxiety (Lessons 9-20)

As if the last post wasn't fun enough...I'm STILL in the first set of DVDs on the Psychology of Flight Anxiety.  This 2nd DVD has 12 more lessons.  I feel a little overwhelmed that there are 12 more lessons at the very beginning here as there was SO much information in the first DVD.  But we'll see where it all goes...

Lesson #9 - Accepting Real Fear, Controlling Synthetic Fear

This lesson continues on with the mindfulness idea which, of course, is very powerful for me.  Capt. Bunn explains that when we are mindful there can still be fear, but we understand what is real and therefore it cannot spiral out of control.  However, when we resist being mindful, imagination can take over.  In flying, "What Is" is never the problem.  The problem is, "What If".  And then he proceeds to take the words of my therapist right out of her mouth.  ;)  He says that when discussing this "What Is" vs "What If" idea, people often say, "Well, what if the plane actually IS crashing?" to which he replies that when people know they are dying, or believe they are facing death, they actually don't freak out.  Instead, there is some reconciliation with death at that point.  He goes on to prove this point by discussing the phone calls from the planes on 9/11 which is exactly the conversation I had with my own therapist a couple of weeks ago.  Those people knew they were about to die, and yet, the phone calls were calm.  

On a side note, I think often of all those people on those planes on 9/11 and how much they gave to the rest of us.  These phone calls are amazing gifts left behind to the living from those who are gone.  Not only for their own loved ones but for all of us to have a glimpse into the mind of one who knows they are about to die.  And my therapist and Capt. Bunn are both correct in saying, they weren't in a panic.  They were saying good-bye.  Which was sad, as most good-byes are.  But they weren't screaming and yelling into the phone.  It is a good reminder to all of us.  I think the whole idea of fear of death for many people, myself included, is the period beforehand...the idea of knowing you're about to die.  Once we're gone, we're gone.  So why worry about that?  But these phone calls make it pretty clear that the panic our imagination conjures up is not the reality.  

Capt. Bunn goes on to remind us that we learn this fear imagination in childhood.  When a child does not have a deep, empathetic attunement with a parent/adult, they cannot always see fearful things as they are because the world is an adult world and so then they go into an imaginative world and create stories that are not real, but can be very, very scary.  I could spend hours and hours discussing this idea and how it relates to my life...but I'll just leave this with...I get it. 

Imagination based fear is something we, ourselves, create.  That's the first step in understanding how to manage it.  Real, reality based fear, cannot be controlled, but this fear will not spiral out of control.  Imagination based fear CAN be controlled.  Increased mindfulness = decreased anxiety.

Lesson #10 - Modes of Experiencing

If we can have the courage to experience reality, we can completely avoid the "What Ifs".  We have a creative mode...where imagination lies and a scientific mode which sees things as is...simply as an observer.  Interestingly, we generally stay out of our creative mode when helping someone else.  Some people say they don't have trouble flying when they are helping someone else.  We also have an avoidant mode where we try to experience nothing at all.  A person who wants to handle things through an avoidant mode is afraid of ANY fear, real or imaginary and they tend to find themselves in level 7 (see last post to understand levels) quite quickly.  Thus, they prefer to feel nothing.  Any situation they can't control is a threat.  Yikes...hitting a little close to home here... 

Lesson #11 - Going Into Your Own Movie

Capt. Bunn starts by saying this part of the program should be enjoyable and that people say this tool was the most invaluable part of the program.  Good!  Enjoyment!  I need some of that right now!  :)

The process starts by remembering how in childhood many of us likely went to a movie that may have had sad parts.  He brings up Lassie...but I certainly remember Bambi.  And how when a loved one saw us with tears running down our face, they may have tapped us on the shoulder and said, "Everything is going to be okay".  The idea in this process is to find a way to tap our ownselves on the shoulder when our imagination starts running wild and remind ourselves that everything will be okay.

He draws a picture of a movie reel with various pictures and starts with moment #1 - the plane is flying along just fine, moment #2 - there is a noise, moment #3 - no noise, moment #4 - no noise, moment #5 - no noise, moment #6 - no noise, moment #7 - the flight attendant asks if we'd like something to drink.  

A person that stays in the reality movie experiences the above as hearing a noise in moment #2, asking themselves what that is in moment #3 and then saying, hm...I don't know in moment #4, and then going back to whatever they were doing in moment #5 and #6 and then when the flight attendant talks to them in moment #7, they say, "sure" and get a drink.  

For a person who is afraid to fly however, the movie starts the same way, but by moment #2, it changes significantly.  In moment #3, this person asks themselves what the noise is and then in moment #4, they make up something like "Oh my gosh, the airplane is going down", in moment #5, they feel tension which then reinforces the feeling in moment #4, in moment #6, they are convinced they've proven their theory right and now believe the plane IS going down...no question about it and then in moment #7 when the flight attendant asks if they'd like something to drink...they don't even hear the question.  

Years ago (about 20 to be exact), my parents upgraded a flight to first class for me.  I still talk about how much I hated it because the flight attendants were talking to me so much and offering me so many things that it drove me crazy.  I can see how that was simply because I was in the above loop and their distractions were just making it worse for me.  This scenario is what Capt. Bunn calls "going into your own movie".  And boy...am I GOOD at this!!  :)

Lesson #12 - Practice Exercise to Prevent "Going Into Your Own Movie"

The exercise goes like this...the next time you're riding in a car, call out loudly, as rapidly as possible, everything you see.  You'll inevitably find that the mind will actually go off the reality movie and you'll see something that will then remind you of something else.  The trick here is to try and begin to identify when you are in your own movie and when you're in reality.  When the imagination takes you some place and you stop calling out loud, take note of when you're in your own movie.  

When going into your own movie, you are adding in something to the flight, which was discussed on the last CD...we can't add or subtract anything.  We just need to experience what IS.

Lesson #13 - Pushing Past The Fear Barriers

Every time you push past a fear, it simply becomes a bridge to the next place.  He discusses looking at times in one's life when you pushed past difficulty...his specific examples are childbirth, running your own business, and learning how to drive...which I have done all three.  He says looking back on them, they almost look like nothing at all because you pushed through all the fear and just kept going.  So, although it seems nearly impossible to overcome this fear of flying, Capt. Bunn suggests making a list of things you have already overcome in your own life so you can see what you've already been able to accomplish.  Being that he made part of my list for me with his own examples, it's pretty easy to see that this is possible.  Of course, I actually DO believe this is possible and although I might be a "little" skeptical...I do believe I can overcome this fear.

Lesson #14 - Roller Coaster Effect

Life has highs and lows.  The momentum in life is what keeps us moving forward.  When we're on a high it's great, the lows aren't so much fun, but that momentum from the high takes us through the low and back up to another high.  When we are afraid of the low and try not to experience it and put on the brakes, we lose momentum and can get stuck in the low.  

Capt. Bunn discusses Dr. James Masterson's study showing that when people start to come out of their shell and start living in a way that expresses their true self, they almost always run into into feelings that are hard to deal with.  What is important is to note what we do when we run into to challenging feelings.  He discusses the Masterson triad #1 - when we start to express the best of who we are, we often find out we may be doing things that not everyone else wants us to do and we may find ourselves very alone and we can sometimes move into #2 which is dysphoric feelings and in order to get away from these feelings we may put on the brakes and go backwards or we continue along to #3 and find a way to mask the feelings in #2 sometimes with some behavior that's not good for us.  I discuss this idea ALL the time with clients of mine.  That in order to move forward, we must actually push through the difficult feelings...experience them...and move forward without trying to mask them. That keeps up that momentum in the roller coaster of life.  

This step is a beautiful analogy for me.  It is how I strive to live my life.  When you set out to do something new, or to behave true to yourself, or simply live life as it is, you WILL run into to difficult feelings.  It's part of life.  We must push through those to get to the other side...the other high in the rollercoaster.  Life has ups and downs.  Period.  But if you push through the downs, you WILL find the ups again.  Pushing through the difficult feelings of flying is how I get THROUGH this fear.  Not around it.  Not masking it.  Not pretending it doesn't exist...but instead walk THROUGH the difficult parts and knowing that difficulties aren't bad.  Instead, they're just part of the process.

Lesson #15 - The Thousand Moment Life

None of us know how many moments we'll live, but in this exercise Capt. Bunn says let's imagine that someone is going to live One Thousand Moments in their life.  Of course, the person doesn't know this.  Capt. Bunn uses the analogy of a gopher and how he feels that sometimes this is how humans live their lives if living with anxiety.  They live sort of below the surface, popping up their head now and then...we keep popping our head out trying to determine if it's safe.  In this analogy, the person keeps popping their head out to moment 999, of course never knowing that life is safe...because it simply isn't safe.  We could die at any moment.  We don't know when that will be.  When at moment 999 this person finds out it IS the last moment, they finally relax because they don't have to worry about it anymore.  But what is the point of this kind of life???  

Capt. Bunn discusses people who live life as above until they are faced with a terrible illness and they realize their days are numbered and they live those final days with so much more joy than they had before.  I think we've all heard those stories.  And I would venture to guess that none of us want to live this way...and yet, many do (myself included for most of my life).  Anxiety becomes familiar and our brain likes familiar, even if it is uncomfortable.  I discuss this a lot with my clients (and remind myself of it almost daily).  Capt. Bunn goes on to remind us that the first time we experience trauma, we are unprepared for it and then we can often spend the rest of our life waiting for it to happen again and trying to constantly avoid it until the very last moment when we can finally relax because it is never going to happen again.  He says, "Hell of a way to live a life, but it's what we do".  

Lesson #16 - Tristan and Isolde

Tristan and Isolde is an opera dealing with feelings experienced when one knows they are going to die.  Capt. Bunn shares that there are many accounts of soldiers who knew they were going to die because they were completely outnumbered in battle, writing in diaries of such peacefulness and sometimes euphoria, not panic and distress.  Tristan and Isolde is an opera that discusses this very idea.  Tristan and Isolde are given a death potion to drink, which they do, and now know they are going to die.  They are at moment 999.  Suddenly they realize there won't be a tomorrow...they don't have to worry about tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and they look at each other and fall madly in love.  They become free to experience the other person just AS IS.  Not adding or subtracting anything.  They have a magical night and then wake the next morning only to find out they didn't die and immediately anxiety returns, dread returns, the need to control things and to control the other person returns and neither want to submit to the others' control and they fall out of love. ~ Sigh ~ This life we live is such an interesting one isn't it.  All of this just to figure out how to fly on a plane.  ;)

Lesson #17 - Ferris Wheel - Pandora's Box

Another great analogy for me.  Capt. Bunn tells a story of a woman he worked with who told a story of being on a ferris wheel and realizing about 1/2 way up that there was no way she could handle how high the ferris wheel was going to go and she seriously wanted to jump off the ferris wheel, knowing it would kill her, rather than experience the fear she knew she was going to feel at the top of the wheel.  I have been in this place as well.

Once there has been a life experience that has been so awful that we simply can't imagine experiencing it again...life may stop being about living and may begin to be about avoiding that experience again.  It depends on being about how much control we have to avoid this experience again and we begin to try to control everything around us so we can be sure to avoid that experience.  Yep. Yep. And Yep.

Capt. Bunn discusses that he believes that those with anxiety likely had some moment that creates this kind of fear in us, as far back as ages 1, 2 or 3 that sticks with us.  A time when we felt alone.  I firmly believe this to be true!  But we don't remember it because we don't have explicit memory at that time in our life.  But we all have implicit memory from birth and those memories stick with us.  Sometimes that's what cause flashbacks...or PTSD in people.  And that can cause some people to organize their lives to make sure they never experience that again.  He goes on to discuss the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty and how it actually relates a level 7 experience.  It's about one's sense of self being shattered into fragments and not being able to come back together.  For most of us, we are able to put ourselves back together again, but if this experience happens enough in our lives, we work hard to make sure we don't have to keep experiencing it.  

Capt. Bunn refers to a book by Volnay P. Gay called The Object of Psychoanalysis Literature Belief Neurosis and Daniel Stern's book Interpersonal World of the Child.  Both these books share the idea that if a child is allowed to experience a full range of feelings with a parent's guidance, a child can learn to cope with a full range of emotions.  On the other hand, when a child handles these experiences without the support of a parent, it puts the child into a level 7 experience that they will then try to avoid again for the rest of their life.

Capt. Bunn introduces the idea that once we know how to use the strengthening exercises that we're going to learn, it will help us avoid the idea of imaging the terrible things that we believe are about to happen.  And what I love about this idea is that this isn't just about flying...this can help in all areas of life.  :)

Before going on to the strengthening exercise, Capt. Bunn describes ways we try to avoid those terrifying experiences and this is where he brings up the idea of Pandora's Box.  He explains that we actually split off a part of ourself that sort of sits on top of the box to keep it closed and the other part of us can just ignore the situation.  The problem arises over the course of life when something happens that triggers the feelings in Pandora's Box and it starts to open and the person on top can't keep it closed.  So, instead that part of ourself, knowing it can't stop the box from opening, sends a lightning bolt of anxiety to get the person out of the situation.  Basically this is saying, Hey, I can't keep this box closed if you stay near these situations that is triggering it to open.  This is called Signal Anxiety.  This is the anxiety we feel when our own internal Pandora's Box is starting to open.  

But what if the box opens?  What's the worst thing that's going to happen?  Basically that something in the box could come out and become conscious to us.  And then Capt. Bunn says, we take it down to our neighborhood therapist and we work with it.  This makes me smile so much because this is most definitely the work I have done for myself and what I do with others.  And that Pandora's Box in my personal and professional experience is impossible to keep closed when giving birth to a baby and thus why many women experience postpartum mood disorders because their Pandora's Box flew open and now so many of these items they kept in their Pandora's Box have come out and must be handled.  The good news is that once dealt with, we lose the stress that came with having the keep the Pandora's Box closed.  That truly is the worst thing that could happen if the box opens.  But instead, what many of us attempt to do causes a worse situation.  We let anxiety stop us from doing things.  And in this case, when we want to do something that means we have to fly, we tell ourselves that we can't fly so we back away from doing the thing we want.  And I definitely believe that THIS choice is SO much worse than allowing the Pandora's Box to open.  So, So much worse and why I am doing the work I am doing.

Lesson #18 - Empathic Attunement, Identification

Capt. Bunn begins this chapter discussing how children grow up with anxiety.  He discusses research and information I already know and believe.  He discusses right brain/right brain connection between a mother and her child when they are emotionally attuned to each other.  "When the mother or the father is attuned to the child, the child knows and feels this".  If the mother is not capable of attunement, the next best thing is identification and that can also provide protection for the child.  Now, fast forwarding into adulthood, this child can grow up feeling insecure knowing that there are people out there who do not identify with him or her which can be threatening.  If the infant can not rely on attunement or identification, the next step is compliance which means the infant simply learns to do what he or she is told or suffer the consequences.  If the child can't rely on any of those things, there is no basis for relationships with others.  This is the hierarchy of quality, but there also much be quantity of these things.  But more importantly, reliability.

Lesson #19 - Swimming Pool

"If we don't push past fear barriers, we don't experience life".  Capt Bunn uses the analogy of being afraid to jump into a swimming pool.  The swimming pool is life and we should be swimming in it, not walking back and forth on the side of the pool afraid to jump in.  The indecision is what causes us anxiety.  Once in the pool, we can live.  "Being alive means being vulnerable"  And there is my key word again... vulnerability. "Being alive, means danger".  You can live your life maximizing your unawareness of danger, but doing so will only place you in greater danger".  "You can live your life maximizing your unawareness of vulnerability, but doing so will shrink your world, and diminish your self as a functioning person".  

Lesson #20 - Abstract Point of No Return

Capt. Bunn states that APNR (Abstract Point of No Return) is one of the most important concepts in the SOAR course.  When the door closes on the airplane, you are past the point of no return.  You can be in that situation in two ways...as the victim of that situation or as the author of that situation.  Capt Bunn uses the analogy of being in a room full of people and there is a huge sheet of steel and a sledgehammer.  One person in the room takes the sledgehammer and hits the piece of steel causing a terrible sound.  That sound bothers everyone in the room except the person who did it.  Because he was the author of the situation.  Thus, if you're on the airplane as the author of the situation, it is a different situation than being on an airplane believing the doors have trapped you. 

On an airplane, the Point of No Return is when the door is closed.  The Abstract Point of No Return is when you decide, perhaps days before your flight, that you're going to be on that airplane No Matter What.  Even if it kills you.  You are so sure because of your determination and commitment that you are going to be on your airplane that it's almost as if you were on the airplane right now.  In order to go into the state of APNR, you have to go into sort of an imaginary fantasy of the best and the worst.  

First do a fantasy of what the very WORST the flight could be.  Take it all the way through turbulence, terror, lightning storms and the airplane coming apart, crashing and dying and being dead.  Then go to the very BEST a flight could be where everything is perfect.  And then realize that it is not going to be the BEST flight and it's also not going to be the WORST flight.  It will be somewhere in between.  That's preparation for the APNR.

Next you have decide what your secret ways out are.  What things would you do to cancel out of the flight.  Would you back out if you picked up the paper on the morning of your flight and saw there was a crash?  Would you back out based on weather?  We must dispense with our secret ways out.  The reason we have to do this is because there is a part of our brain that will remind us why we shouldn't be on the plane, but if we are completely committed, we can respond with So What...I'm going to do it anyway...then that other part gives up and moves on.  If one can fully be committed to getting on the plane NO MATTER WHAT then when you get on the plane, you actually find that you have a sense of peace.

Capt. Bunn goes on to say that as you approach a flight, you will make the commitment and lose it and have to make it again, over and over.  I have been here.  I have moments when I am completely committed to flying and actually can see some fun in it, and then I lose it and have to start over.  But Capt. Bunn says that it's important to keep doing this so that when you ARE on the plane and the doors DO close, you are there as an author, not a victim.

The good news for me is that there is no backing out of this flight.  I'm going on this trip.  It's for my kids and thus, we're going.  Also, my personality would likely never let me back out at the gate or on the plane or if I was flying with someone else simply because I am a rule follower.  I have a ticket.  I'm going to fly.  Nonetheless, being on the plane as an author and not a victim is a HUGE piece of this for me.

And thus ends the lesson section.  The next DVD is real life stories and exercises to practice.  And I keep plugging along.... :)

DVD #1 Psychology of Flight Anxiety (Lessons 1 - 8)

This is a picture of my beautiful set of 11 DVDs from the SOAR program.  I started DVD number 1, titled Psychology of Flight Anxiety, last week while I was getting ready for work.  I got about 1/3 of the way in and realized I HAD to blog my way through these DVDs because the information is so great and so detailed that I didn't want to forget any of it.  AND, I figure it can help others see in to the mind of someone with fairly extreme flight anxiety.

The first video begins with a welcome to the program by Capt. Tom Bunn, LCSW who discusses the human spirit and how when even when we are unsure that something will work...we try anyway.  This program is used by countless people who don't think it will work for them.  I feel very much the same way but am quickly reminded that I'm not alone, and am, instead, in exactly the right place with these videos.

Capt. Bunn makes it clear from the get go that flying is not an unsafe thing to do even though, because I'm watching the video, I likely believe otherwise.  He says that if it was 1945 and I thought flying was unsafe, I'd be right.  Planes were different then.  Navigation was primitive.  He goes on to say that unfortunately, Hollywood produces movies that are based on the kind of accidents that could happen in 1945 which simply don't happen today.

Let's do some statistics...Capt. Bunn shows that in 1945 if you were to go from New York to LA, that whether you drove or flew, your chances of being in a fatal accident were EQUAL.  But then reframes this to make it clear that even in 1945, airline travel was no more dangerous than driving.  He then moves on to the 1970s and shares how planes were no 3 times safer than in 1945, so this means you could fly from New York to Los Angeles 33 times or drive once and have exactly the same risk of a fatal accident.   He states that if this was 1970 and I thought flying was unsafe, I would have been wrong.  He moves on to the 1980s where the odds increased more.  In the 1980s, one could fly from New York to Los Angeles 104 times or drive once to have the same risk of a fatal accident.  Then the 21st statistics arrive and Capt. Bunn states that it is safer for a person to be on a modern day airliner than sleeping in their own bed! :o  He points out the Boeing 757, 767, 777, and the Airbus 319 and higher are accident free in the United States.  And while these planes remain accident free, people on the ground continue to have fatal accidents every day just going about their normal day.  Natural disasters happen...but we all know those things are fairly rare...what's even more rare, apparently, are plane accidents.

Ah...but wait Capt. Bunn!  I'll be flying a 737!  Ha Ha!  Got ya there!  And now my brain is spinning about this fact and how I'm not going to be on one of those planes listed above that are accident free in the U.S.  Again...insight into the human brain on fear!

And then he states that he can give all the statistics in the world and a person with a fear of flying will likely still not FEEL safe and that we have to deal with those feelings, not just be given statistics.

And then this is where he gets into my counselor brain.  He discusses how when certain feelings are not developed between the ages of 1 and 3, we start trying to control our feelings by controlling the things around us.  And we lose the ability to control our surroundings we can panic.  Wait?  How does he know me so well??  Can he see me through the video????  ;)

Capt Bunn goes on to say that when you begin to  panic on a plane, you can't regroup by regaining control, nor can you leave.  Those with a fear of flying often feel that flying should be different but it's not flying that needs to change, FLYING IS SAFE.  It is our ability to deal with our feelings that needs work.  Both the feelings that come when one thinks about flying and the ones that come when one is actually on a flight.

After a quick summary, we move on to the next chapter which discusses the premise of the course which is to be able to experience flying JUST AS IT IS.  Capt. Bunn said if the fearful flyer was in the cockpit, you'd have less trouble because you could see what is happening.  There would be no imagination and imagination is always the problem.  When you feel a bump, you can imagine the worst case scenario.  The brain reaction to an imaginary threat causes the same physical reactions as it does to an actual threat.  Um...childbirth class anyone?? Not as though I've ever taught this same idea to hundreds of people in a childbirth class! :o

Capt. Bunn states that the problem with flying is always something that one tries to add or subtract from the natural experience of flying.  One may add imagination or subtract basically everything...you try to subtract turbulence or sounds or any number of normal flying experiences.  In essence, trying to feel nothing is exhausting and rarely works.  This adding and subtracting causes 100% of the problems with flying! Again...how does he know me so well? 

The program's goal is to rehabilitate the anxious flyer's ability to experience flying JUST AS IT IS.  Or as I would say...to be mindful...in this moment.  Dang.  Hit another spot for me!  :/  I'm all about mindfulness.  Can I really do it on a plane...30,000 feet in the air???  Capt. Bunn says I can... And he seems to know me well... So, I guess I'll keep going with this...

A bump can be felt as just a bump, not impending disaster.  A noise is simply a noise and nothing more.  Sigh...again...how many times have I taught this same idea in a childbirth class???  Non Focused Awareness anyone??

If one tries to subtract everything and seems capable of doing so, even the tiniest thing that gets through the filter causes undue stress and snowballs and causes the flyer to suffer.  Suffer.  How many times have I discussed the difference between pain in labor and suffering in labor?  But suffer...that's how I feel on a plane.  As though I am suffering every single minute because I am most definitely trying to subtract everything and then adding imagination to everything that gets through my subtraction filter.  Capt. Bunn states that in this scenario, the tiniest bump causes the imagination to believe the plane is going to plummet.  The tiniest sound causes the imagination to tell stories of what the sound means and how it likely is something terrible.   We're just 11 minutes into the first of 11 videos people...and already Capt. Bunn has me pegged!  And if there is an entire program like this...I can't be the only one who feels this way.  Somehow, as backwards as that is, this gives me some comfort.

"ALL OUR DIFFICULTIES WITH FLYING ARE SELF-INFLICTED" says Capt. Bunn.

He goes on to discuss how many people he has talked to who have experienced terrible flight after terrible flight with many stories of what happened on the flight.  He explains that as an airline pilot he flew about 400,000 miles a year and never had any terrible flights.  And he realized these are the exact same flights.  He's in the cockpit having a pleasant flight and the flyers are in the cabin.  The flyers are going to go tell their friends and family about their horrible experience while he was going to tell his friends and family that it was another normal flight.  ~ Sigh ~ Another comparison for me.  I often discuss how different my experience at a birth is from that of the parents or grandparents or friends and family who love this person but don't understand the birth process.  Exact same analogy here when it comes to flying.   Capt. Bunn says people have told him their plane dropped 100 feet or even 10,000 feet but he says the only place that happened was in their imagination.  When you can see what's going on, reality limits your experience.  When you can't see what's going on, you can experience as far as the imagination will take you.  Next, emotional control centers are triggered and potentially lead to terror and panic.

This takes us into Lesson 3 which is called Fear - The Necessary Emotion

We are supposed to have fear.  This is a necessary emotion.

The Boeing Company did a study and found that 18.1% of people have a true fear of flying...they WILL NOT fly.  Period.  16% have anxiety when they fly.  This means that 1 out of 3 people feel similarly to how I feel about flying.  When it comes to the other 2 out of 3...some believe they have no fear...some believe fear is weak so tell themselves they have no fear...some may simply have fear of other things rather than flying.   

Capt. Bunn tells a story of a fellow pilot in the service and how he claimed fearlessness.  You'll have to buy the CD yourself for the full story, but the point of the story is that anyone claiming fearlessness is either fooling themselves or trying to hurt another person's self-esteem and that by pretending not to be afraid of things, you can actually create a panic attack when things you tried to put behind the metaphorical curtain come back to bite you when you don't have the ability to adequately handle the fear you pretended didn't exist.  THIS was my experience on my last flight two years ago.  We flew from Seattle to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Charlotte and then home from Charlotte to Detroit and Detroit to Seattle.  I handled the first three flights...let's just say...okay.  But the flight home apparently pushed me over the top.  I had repeatedly told myself I was fine, but the flight to Seattle was bumpy and my imagination took over and I spent about 3 hours in the midst of a panic attack on that flight.  43 years old...sobbing.  Yep...that was me!  And that's why I'm doing this program because I would like that NOT to be me again!

Lesson 4 - Courage and Risk

Everything we do has some risk.  There is no way around risk because there is nothing that is completely safe.  Everyone knows that flying includes some risk.  Some people who appear to be fearless about flying may still have fear, they just don't let it stop them.  You don't have to remove all fear to be able to fly.  

"Courage consists in equality to the problem before us" ~ Emerson  

Not adding or subtracting anything.  Courage isn't fearlessness...it's allowing yourself to feel the fear, hold the fear, and still have room left over for action.

"Courage is mastery of fear, not absence of fear" ~ Twain

Capt Bunn discusses flying F100s and how in his class, when they graduated (all 13 of them), they were told "Congratulations" because they were the first full class to finish without someone dying.  He said they weren't told that ahead of time.  18 months later, there were only 9 left...not during war time...4 more had died in routine flights.  F100s weren't safe and people flew them.  

He goes on to discuss that he doesn't believe telling people that airplanes are completely safe and people shouldn't be afraid is the way to handle a fear of flying program.  Instead, he is going to tell it how it is and some of the things may cause people to feel uneasy (he says to e-mail him if that happens because he wants to clear it up).  But he wants people to understand how flying is...JUST AS IT IS.  

Lesson 5 - Imagination and Sensation

Flying is the safest form of transportation there is.  What needs to change is not flying, but how a person FEELS about flying.  This begins with acknowledging that there is nothing wrong with the way we feel now.  

In Capt Bunn's experience with countless people who have a fear of flying, he says that everyone who has a fear of flying has two excellent characteristics:  They are very intelligent and they are very imaginative.  That imagination takes the information in the brain and VIVIDLY makes it seem real.  He does a quick experiment and says to pick an object in the room and then imagine someone told you it wasn't real...how could you prove it was real...by touching it, right?  If something is imaginary, there is no physical evidence of it.  If it is real, you can feel it.  On a plane, it's not that simple.  When a person thinks a plane is in trouble, there is actually physical evidence to prove this to us.  Capt Bunn explains that when we tense up, it transfers weight to our arms on the arm rests and our feet on the floor instead of the weight being firmly planted in the seat and thus it feels as though the plane is dropping.

And here it is...44 minutes into the video...the Fight or Flight response.  THAT certainly never comes up in a childbirth class.  :o  Ahhh...that lovely adrenalin.  

So, now it comes to reality testing.  If we can both see something and feel something, we satisfy the reality test.  We now believe it.  Once reality testing is satisfied, we reach closure...we are sure we are right, whether it is right or not.  Once we are convinced we're in danger, the body tenses even further and this is taken as even more proof that we are in trouble and the more tense we go.  We go from thinking we are in danger to believing we are doomed.  Ugh...THAT was my flight from Detroit to Seattle.  Capt Bunn says it doesn't matter at this point what anyone else thinks or believes on the plane...we believe we are crashing and ARE, in a psychological way, actually crashing.  But just like my flight...the plane didn't crash...it was a false reality and false closure and reality shifted and cycled out of control...more fear, more tension, more panic (in childbirth classes we discuss more fear, more tension, more pain).  

We need to add sophistication to our reality testing.  Fear does not equal danger.  Danger does not equal fear.  The fight or flight response is like the smoke alarm going off in the kitchen.  If the smoke alarm goes off, you don't automatically run out of the kitchen.  You determine if something is actually on fire.

Lesson 6 - Awareness and Mindfulness

One kind of panic results when we try to keep too much out of awareness and finally the ability to do that fails.  Once again...this is so central to my life.  I understand all this.  I know that this truly is the core of my flying issues.  Capt Bunn discusses how we can spend a lifetime putting things behind a curtain, a wall, a dam inside of us...all that does is develop anxiety that the dam might break (which it inevitably will).

Mindfulness takes us directly back to the core of this course.  Experiencing the flight exactly as it is.  The more aware you are, the more control over your life you have.

Lesson 7 - Seven Levels of Arousal

1 (Lowest Level) - Deep Sleep - completely asleep, not even dreaming
2 - Active Sleep - some dreaming takes place
3 - Drousy - Not quite awake
4 - Awake - Alert but not processing
5 - Awake Plus - Alert and processing
6 - Agitation - Could be positive (excitement) or negative emotion(fear or anxiety)
7 - Flooding - Can't think rationally

Levels of Flooding
7a - Mind is flooded (mind will come unflooded if nothing else happens - low level panic attack)
7b - Place (lose sense of place...out of body experience)
7c - Time (lose sense of time...in endless timeless state of panic)
7d - Person (lose sense of who you are)

Once one has experienced any level of Flooding, you want to avoid it again...but if you make it all the way to 7d, the ego is involved and the ego will do just about anything to avoid this situation again because it basically lost itself in the panic attack and doesn't want that to happen again.  THIS...again...is exactly what happened on my flight to Seattle two years ago.  Capt. Bunn states that "It takes almost a super human effort to get on an airplane once you have had a level 7d panic attack". The ego KNOWS that getting on a plane will kill you...because as far as the ego is concerned...if the ego dies...so does the person.

Lesson 8 - Synthetic Fear - Scaring the Ego to Death

Scaling Fear from 0-10 - Zero being relaxed and 10 being flooded.  Scientific studies show that real based fear only takes a person to a 3 or maybe a 4.  Capt. Bunn uses the analogy of a car accident.  When it's actually happening, you may get up to a 3, but it is after the event, when you look back on it, that the levels climb.  You can do the "what if" looking back or forwards.  The highest levels of fear come from imagination and one after another of "what ifs".  This kind of fear is synthetic fear.  Real fear is based on what IS.  Reality is limited.  It rarely, if ever, presents you with one life threatening situation at a time.  But synthetic fear can ramp up one life threatening situation on top of one another.  Fear based on reality cannot flood us, but fear based on imagination can.   

The ego believes it is all there is and that there is no difference between being overwhelmed and being dead.

The ego can rationalize that although other people may be able to get on a plane and get to their destination just fine, if "I" get on the plane, it will crash.  (THIS IS ME!)  "I" being the ego.  And in other words, the crashing of the airplane is not the crashing of an airplane, it's the crashing of the ego.

If we can completely understand that what we are running from is synthetic fear...we might be able to stop running from a tale of our own creation.

And THAT my friends is just DVD#1 of 11.  1 hour and 20 minutes.  I have 3 1/2 weeks to get through the remaining 10 DVDs.  But this one alone has already had a HUGE impact on me...if for no other reason than to make me feel less alone.

My hope is that this is helpful to someone else as well and that it gives a look into the mind of those of us with flight anxiety for those who simply don't understand it. 

The countdown continues....  

Tickets Booked

We booked our tickets this morning.  My heart was pounding out of my chest.  My anxiety ramped up and I had to walk away.  What might not be stressful for someone else was intense for me.  The trip down isn't so bad.  Both flights are non-stop which is a big deal for me because that means just one take off and landing each way.  However, on the way home the plane is pretty full and we can't all sit together and so I flipped out and then we started looking at different flights with more stops.  But I simply couldn't imagine flying to from San Antonio to Chicago to get home.  Or even flying from San Antonio to Dallas and then to Seattle.  It's a 4 hour non-stop flight from San Antonio.  But San Antonio to Dallas was an hour and then the flight to Seattle was 4 1/2 hours.  That's a lot more flight time.  So....I had to breathe and just remember that everything will be fine.  Everything will turn out exactly as it is supposed to.  We went back to the original flight and booked our seats as closely as we could get.  

I have all my CDs to listen to in the SOAR program.  It's time to get started!  I've only got six weeks left to prepare.  :o