Fear of flying may prevent some people from ever setting foot onto an airplane, but for one California woman she did the opposite. She face he r fear's right on by taking up flying lessons. Julie Merrick started to get extreme anxiety after hearing about an Alaska Airlines crash ten years ago. This led to her obsession of why airplanes crash. Then eventually she started to become intrigued by airplanes.In January 2009 she received her private pilot license. She got it with 123 flight hours which is more then the national average of 70 hours. She relates flying as being so cool. She also had a hard time getting through the written exam too. She plans on getting more pilot ratings in the future.