Flying: A Dash 8 isn't a great idea for a phobic, is it??!

[Tansie]

I am not the world's greatest flying which is ridiculous because I have flown Aeroflot, internal airlines in Africa and China and so forth in my time, but as I get older, I am less enamoured. I can do shorthaul like Southampton/Malaga on Flybe, and no real issue with Airbus 380s (London/Singapore stylee) but- a Dash 8? Prop plane for 1 hr 25 mins?

Will I die of fright??

Dash 8s are fab little aircraft....just a tad noisy

They're fine (taken them in/out So'ton lots of times)

www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/2816347/

depends how bad your phobia is. I avoided one in Canada and drove instead. I have to take diazepam just to get on the plane. you may not be as bad as this.

I've just looked it up and this is the plane on my usual flybe route from Birmingham - Stuttgart.

Did it the first time I flew alone, no issues. It's fine, feels pretty much like any other plane. DH however when he first flew this route clutched my hand and said "You can see the propellor out of the window, oh my god" and was really freaked out about that.

I didn't think it was scary at all. Get a seat in front of the wing rather than behind and it's no different to a normal plane IME. 1hr 25 is a short flight, too. 20 minutes getting up, 20 minutes coming down. You barely have time in the air to settle in!

I do not like flying, chose a 6.5 hour train journey rather than fly but I have survived a dash 8. Strangely I was calmer- in my head the smaller plane was more likely to stay in the air than a jumbo. It might have helped that they served free booze on the flight .

I was still very relieved to be back on the ground though!

thanks all!

Flying, to me, is a means to an end. I do not like it; and perhaps won't, although my (silent) hyperventilation upon facing the London/Sydney flight, via Singapore, was lessened by the plane being an Airbus A380 (having been to Farnborough Airshow that year, have you seen what they can do with those planes?!). The plane kissed all runways it encountered, obviously with banks of teensy computers rapidly calibrating and adjusting all the angles on the landing gear as we touched down to enable me to feel that way! No bouncing 'joyfully' along runways on those!

I am going to Get On With It. Whilst gripping the armrest during landing, muttering to DH 'I hate this bit, I hate this bit' ...

no, you have it all wrong landing is the very best bit it means it is all over and you can get off soon.

mummy ( and solidarity re The Scottish Question...), I'm OK, once we've been airborne for long enough that I've rationalised the fact we're not actually crashing, til we start the descent. Good air crew (i.e. those sensitive to the paranoia in Seat 7D) tell us that 'We're about to commence our descent'- though it's pretty bloody obvious! The others suddenly begin a 270 degree, loooong turn whilst descending. I go 'OK, clouds. It's gonna be a bit bumpy. OK, I'm OK with that'... til we hit clouds and it gets bumpy and I'm 'OMG OMG OMG' Albeit silently as we Mustn't Frighten The Children...

I look down and see interesting fields, what's that road? That lake? What town? Which road? (remaining calm at all times)... etc And why did we overfly the runway 5 minutes ago yet we fly ever eastwards? TURN! TURN! Only not bumpily!'... Til we do, in fact, turn ...OMG OMG!

God, I'm pathetic

As we speak DH is somewhere over SE Asia having been airborne for almost 11 hours en route to Singapore, thence Brisbane. However, he is in an Airbus A380, not a Dash8! And on that same flight, 2 years ago, I was able to experience the joy of boredom on a long haul flight (7 hours in), replacing bottled up terror. Yay, if that, indeed, is a victory.....