2008-11-21T19:55:58Z http://blog.flyinganxiety.com/atom.aspx Quick Blogcast tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-11-21:cae7f825-8e63-4a6e-8aa1-8ac935c6f3ee Capt Eric 2008-11-21T07:26:25Z 2008-11-21T07:17:00Z Many people who have anxiety about flying struggle to find the best seat in the house that they feel will relieve some anxiety.
But, that all depends on many factors. People choose seats for different reasons. There's a website called www.seatguru.com
that will help you locate the best seat. The various benefits depend if your looking for a seat for comfort, peace & quiet, safety, or to
feel less turbulence. As an example for comfort, you might not want to sit at the back of the plane next to the bathrooms. Otherwise, you will constantly hear the bathroom doors slam every couple of minutes, & along with the smell your get. Some people choose the middle section of the airplane near the wing root. This is a good seat for people who are afraid of turbulence. The center of gravity of the airplane is near that area & acts as a natural shock absorber for turbulence so you will fill less of it. ]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-11-15:55933146-295e-47bc-a12c-eecbcadac429 Capt Eric 2008-11-15T05:55:44Z 2008-11-15T05:31:00Z However, in my opinion the news media couldn't be further from the truth. I think Federal Air Marshals are an elite law enforcement bunch that you should feel proud, & confident that they will keep you safe while flying. Air marshals does have high requirements to get in. Yes, it is true that they did lowered their standards a little after 9/11 to sure up their ranks. But, they shortly afterwords increase the standards again. You must not forget that air marshals only numbered to 50 prior to 9/11. So after 9/11 they had a lot of catching up to do. Today they are caught up, & their standards are high. To make my point, they were credited to doing a good job in that shooting incident on an American Airlines airplane in Miami about year ago. In that case a disturb men made bogus attempts to blow up the airplane. The marshals didn't know that the man was disturbed. They used restriant, & appropriate amount of force needed to challenge a threat. They shot the man after he wouldn't follow they orders to stop. The marshals were cleared of any wrong doing. Its important to know that these news story were old incidents that was looped & reported already earlier. This news report gives the impression that theres a serious problem with the Federal Air Marshall Program when reality shows otherwise. Similarly, you see this same over sensational news coverage when there is an airplane crash giving mixed messages to passengers rather flying is safe. Don't fall for it.]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-11-11:3c403058-9a81-4f0b-b0ac-2355ebd3994b Capt Eric 2008-11-11T09:06:19Z 2008-11-11T09:05:00Z www.jetlagstudy.net.
]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-11-03:962b11d9-b551-4751-b596-2a5213b73418 Capt Eric 2008-11-03T17:34:28Z 2008-11-03T17:25:00Z ]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-10-27:a1ef7a3d-0139-445e-abee-6903c5291603 Capt Eric 2008-10-27T16:30:51Z 2008-10-27T16:11:00Z tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-10-19:eed41e6f-31b5-4d54-8ab6-4fcc86a977e2 Capt Eric 2008-10-19T22:31:33Z 2008-10-19T22:11:00Z I get is what if both engines quit. Well first of all I want to emphasize how rare of a possibility that is. In the last 30 years the aircraft manufactures have made great progress in making very strong & reliable jet engines. They are tested for hundreds of hours under tough conditions. In one example they spray a fire hose into the engine to see how much water pressure would cause it to lose power. That test far exceeds any major rain you will get in a hurricane. They also test it for severe icing conditions in flight. Its important to know that all aircraft have anti icing systems that uses heat from the engine exhaust to melt any engine ice. If one engine quits, you still have enough power from the other engine for ant-ice protection. Then they simulate a bird strike by throwing a large bird like a turkey into an engine intake while in the wind tunnel. This should be no problem for today's engines. They are design to still work even if it was hit by one,or two birds.
Now, lets say in the rare event that both engines quit? Well then in this case the airplane becomes a glider just like the space shuttle. When the shuttle comes back from orbit , it glides all the way back to Cape Carnaval Space center. Well a jet aircraft can glide to about 100 miles at a typical altitude of most jets such as 35,000 ft. You will pass dozens of airports within a hundred miles easily.
]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-10-13:f1882a27-9562-41ff-b0db-c991afa18c6f Capt Eric 2008-10-13T21:59:43Z 2008-10-13T21:46:00Z ]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-10-10:973008f2-7917-4d28-98b4-b38b9adda6e4 Capt Eric 2008-10-10T04:53:40Z 2008-10-10T04:39:00Z tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-10-05:836c7008-b26a-4fb4-a8ed-de6ed7d2a7f3 Capt Eric 2008-10-05T16:20:16Z 2008-10-05T16:08:00Z There's been a little update on the British Airways crash that happened earlier this year in 1/08 London.  Just to recap on that accident, it involved a B-777. This is quite a big airplane. But most important, there were no fatalities. The airplane crashed about a mile short of the runway when it lost engine power on both engines. This was highly unusual to lose power on both engines. The ntsb helped in the investigation, & even though its still preliminary what we do know is that the fuel lines suffered ice crystals in the fuel tank. With ice in the fuel tanks it starved the engines of fuel. Normally there is a system on most jets that allow pilots to heat the fuel tank in flight to keep it from building ice. Most airplanes have this feature as an automatic function. Boeing aircraft maker devised a number of operational changes to prevent ice build ups in the B-777 fuel lines which uses Rolls-Royce engines. ]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-10-03:6ada62a2-b38c-4c08-81ec-ce8f66d1c7c0 Capt Eric 2008-10-03T19:46:38Z 2008-10-03T19:26:00Z ]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-10-02:0aa365e9-0ffa-4ab8-ba42-37049001076b Capt Eric 2008-10-02T17:40:13Z 2008-10-02T17:22:00Z ]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-09-20:d354e7f1-0ad2-4513-899c-8b3c962ec3d9 Capt Eric 2008-09-20T12:06:59Z 2008-09-20T11:48:00Z However, accident investigators looked at the Flight Data Recorder which indicated that the flaps/slats were not extended for takeoff. Why? you probably are wondering? I am seeing a lot of chain of events here. 
There's no way to forget setting the flaps/slats because the airplane yells at you. There is an loud audio warning as you attempt a taking off that warns you that the slats/flaps are not confirgure. It appears this device was not working, or MEL. Mel means minimum equipment list. The FAA allows you to fly with certain equipment not working as long as its fixed by a certain time. Its important to know that this warning system didn't cause the accident. Its certainly a big piece in a long chain of events. The accident is still in the early stages & a final report will come out soon. It would not surprise me if the accident investigators site the carriers financial woes as a problem too. ]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-09-17:342729a4-317e-40fc-995f-9fc7196c7467 Capt Eric 2008-09-17T15:08:51Z 2008-09-17T14:56:00Z tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-09-10:210ce7df-4269-474e-bf6b-77676676550c Capt Eric 2008-09-10T11:59:41Z 2008-09-10T11:49:00Z For the first time in many years theres been a steady decline in car deaths. Thats good news. The bad news is that it still hovers around 40,000 deaths a year. The exact decline came to fewer that 1649 less deaths then the previous years. This has been accredited to safer vehicles, & aggressive law enforcement efforts. The Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that over 2 million people was seriously injured in car accidents last year. Also motorcycle fatalities rose for the 10 straight year to 5154. Lets look at this number again. To compare this to airline crashes, you will need at least one B-747 crash per month to equal the amount of people killed in motorcycle accidents in the U.S. alone.
]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-08-20:83a916cb-49ff-4782-8cc2-a620f4b5de79 Capt Eric 2008-08-20T22:44:21Z 2008-08-20T22:09:00Z tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-07-29:c299bc3e-76b9-4686-806e-35dc5fc9f54e Capt Eric 2008-07-29T13:10:07Z 2008-07-29T12:46:00Z Last week the airline industry almost had a catastrophe. Worst yet, Qantas Airlines almost had it's near perfect safety record  shattered.  Fortunately, that didn't happen & that airline still has an 0 fatalities rate with a good safety record. Last week a Qantas B-747 suffered an explosive decompression at 29,000 ft due to an oxygen cylinder exploding. It ripped a huge hole on the fuselage of the airplane. No one knows why it exploded. We were lucky that airplane wasn't flying higher such as 39,000 -41,000 feet. If that same scenario happened at a higher altitude, some people would've died because the pilot may not have had enough time to descend to lower breathable altitude. At flight level 410 you could lose consciousness within 5 seconds without your mask. Australia's Civil Aviation Authority said some people's mask did not work. Thats no surprise being that at least one oxygen cylinder exploded. At this time, the investigation is still going on. Australia's Civil Aviation Authority has ordered inspections of the airlines B-747 fleet.
]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-07-13:1c6b9fc7-862f-4fea-ae6d-bd41137d340d Capt Eric 2008-07-13T18:55:04Z 2008-07-13T18:28:00Z But, most people don't understand complexies that drive our fear. In the center of the
brain there is an almond shaped organ known as the amygdala. This is the part of the brain
that provides powerful emotions. This fear is hard wired into our brains.
Recently a prominent fear researcher has written about the science of fear in his landmark
book called, "The Emotion Brain". He begins with the tragedy of 9/11,and points out that more
common & deadly tragedies are overlooked because they aren't as new or darkly glamorous.
For example, he mentions about terrorist attacks in the last century. Fewer than twenty attacks
from terrorism has caused more that 100 people to be killed. However, if you compared those
numbers with thosed killed by diabetes,or heart diease then its no comparison. This is similar
to what I write on the first page of my website. More people are killed from medical malpractice
then aircraft accidents. So there's nothing to fear but fear it's self.]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-07-09:6f9dffa2-ebaa-4318-b479-da605d2a708c Capt Eric 2008-07-09T17:19:30Z 2008-07-09T17:09:00Z Just this past fourth of July weekend there was an incident involving a Northwest Airlines B757 that suffer huge amount damage on the nose dome of the fuselage. The aircraft was inbound to Florida & flying at around 15,000 ft when the passengers heard a loud bang. There was also a lot of lightning in the area at that time. However, it remains a mystery on the exact cause of the damage. The bottom line is that aircraft are made tough to take a lot of damage like that rather its a bird strike from a large bird, or lightning. But, in any case this is prove to trust the industry & the technology that will keep you safe.
]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-07-01:86fa8255-e89d-4707-8e8e-13f1df67ae70 Capt Eric 2008-07-01T22:04:45Z 2008-07-01T21:47:00Z There was a study this week by Greenwich University in London that studied the best chances of survivors based on your seat assignment. They studied over 105 accidents & interviewed over 2000 survivors of former plane crashes. The study concluded that the best seat for you to survive a plane crash was an aisle seat near the front within 5 seats from an exit. I am sure the study had a good purpose, but I think it gives a force sense of security. In my experience it doesn't matter much where you sit because most people who die from airplane crashes die from either the trauma due to the direct impact, or smoke inhalation. Regardless of where you sit, your odds improve of surviving if you have that mind set to survive such as paying attention to the safety briefing, or acting quickly when an emergency happens. For instance, think of the people in the World Trade Center top floor of building 2. When the first airplane hit the first tower, People had precious minutes in the other tower to make their escape. Some people listen to their intuition  & escape while others hesitated & perished.
]]> tag:blog.flyinganxiety.com,2008-06-07:640a7b11-26a2-4877-aaf1-67061af2eca9 Capt Eric 2008-06-07T13:15:09Z 2008-06-07T13:01:00Z ]]>