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FEARLESS FLYERS By Karen Harding
Quest Kudos Magazine – September 2007

It starts with a small feeling in the pit of the stomach. Something heavy, perhaps dread. Breathing becomes shallower and muscles start to weaken. Lightheadedness and shakiness set in. Thoughts race and the ability to control them disappears. It is fear - and it is not going away.

For an estimated one in five people, just the thought of air travel causes a reaction somewhere between discomfort and total panic. Some manage to get through it and some do not. Some avoid it altogether. But for most people, air travel these days is part of life, whether it be for business or pleasure. The world, quite simply, is a smaller place and getting from one corner to another efficiently means flying. For those who seek a solution and would rather arrive at their destination relaxed than debilitated, the answer has been to tackle the problem head-on. See a psychologist, listen to hypnotic tapes, do meditation.

Or, attend the time-honoured Fearless Flyers course. 

Run in Australia for 29 years in association with Qantas and Air Services Australia, this program boasts a success rate well above 90%. So successful has it been that some of its graduates have gone on to become pilots themselves or flight attendants. Others act as mentors with each new intake of fearful flyers.

The beginnings of the course can be traced back to a meeting of the”99s” in Canberra in 1978. The “99s” refers to the International Organisation of Women Pilots, who had 99 charter members, including Amelia Earhart. The Canberra conference was the first time this group had met outside the United States. Present among them was Fran Grant, who had started a course on overcoming fear of flying some two years earlier with United Airlines.  She agreed to the program being run in Australia on the condition that it remained a non-profit project. Five women took in on, including Glenda Philpott who acts as National Co-ordinator and has attended each and every course since its inception. Now the only member of that original group still involved, Philpott takes delight in the success stories and in seeing people finding a new pleasure in air travel.

Courses on overcoming fear of flying are one of two types: those run by psychologists and those run by aviation enthusiasts, employing a psychologist as part of the personnel. The Fearless Flyers program is of the second type and Philpott thinks that is the better way to go. While the emphasis on psychological techniques is heavy and at the basis of the course, no stone is left unturned to reassure and re-educate about the safety of air travel.

Engineers talk about engines, redundancy (the aeroplane having significantly more power and back-up systems than it actually needs to fly safely), why planes DON’T just fall out of the sky (air is a liquid and the plane moves through it much as a submarine moves through water) and various other safety measures, including the thoroughness of the maintenance schedule. Meteorologists talk about the impact of weather on flying, specifically turbulence (which is most people’s concern), lightning, and the information given to pilots before and during the course of a flight. A Flight Captain gives insight into his training and qualifications, which at Qantas in particular are very demanding, and a flight attendant describes a typical flight from her perspective. Attendees are also taken on guided tours to places few people get to see - the Captain’s cockpit, the air traffic control tower, an aeroplane on the tarmac. In Melbourne and Sydney only, they also undergo a session in the flight simulator, normally accessed only by pilots in training.  

Each person is assigned to a small support group, usually 3-4 persons, which is overseen by one of the volunteers, mainly members of Australian Women Pilots Association. Feedback within this group at the end of each day is helpful and participants are free to discuss their concerns within the group, or at any time for that matter.

The course culminates with a graduation flight to another capital city, accompanied by the Fearless Flyers staff, and a celebratory lunch at a quality venue. Graduates are awarded certificates and given a Fearless Flyers badge to acknowledge their achievement.

For Philpott and her associates, dealing with fear of flying means dealing with a wide range of people and differing types and level of fears - agoraphobia, claustrophobia, those who have never flown before, those who have flown a lot but are becomingly increasingly fearful, those who have had frightening experiences and not understood them and those who suffer panic attacks. “The statistics say 1 in 5 but it is actually closer to 1 in 4 people that do not feel comfortable in an aeroplane” she said. “We have to try to address all the different issues.”  Being pilots themselves, however, does not mean that they struggle to understand the fears of others. “Everybody has their concerns about something or other and I guess all the ladies understand that. It’s just that we all love flying and love being involved.”

Some of Philpott’s favourite happy-ending stories include the girl who went on to become a flight attendant with QantasLink, flying mainly on the Dash 8s in Queensland, and of a young man who very nearly did not make his graduation flight but pushed himself through, ringing his wife in jubilation after arrival, and later not only acquiring his pilot’s licence but purchasing his own plane. Or of graduates such as Annette Street, who shortly after the course flew to the United States and back, employing the techniques she had learned. “I found the course informative, challenging and, most of all for me, successful” says Street. “I would recommend it to anyone.”  Street will be guest speaker to the next intake of nervous flyers, where her story will be used to inspire others to break through their fears.

There are those who do not make the graduation flight, of course, but they are very few and most go on to fly at a time shortly thereafter. “It is a confidence thing, I think” said Philpott. “We provide people with the tools to conquer their fear but it is also up to them to work on it themselves.” Course staff recommend that graduates fly again within 4-6 weeks of their graduation for maximal effect and thereafter continue to fly as often as possible.

Courses of this type are now held internationally and all claim an outstanding success rate. Earlier this year, the third World Conference on Fear of Flying was held in Montreal, at the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which is part of the United Nations. I.C.A.O. is to prepare a report for the airlines on the impact of converting fearful flyers into peaceful passengers but it was estimated at the conference that for every dollar amount contributed by airlines into these courses, as much as five times that amount is returned in revenue. It makes financial sense, then, for the airlines to support the initiative and encourage its participants. The gain for the business world cannot be measured but it is surely a boon for employers to have their staff prepared to travel and able to do so comfortably. While for those that just wish to see something of the world or to visit family and friends in far-off places, taking to the skies is now as easy as a walk in the park.

The next Fearless Flyers course is in Sydney in September but is fully booked. Places are still available for Melbourne in October or Brisbane in November. The cost of $850 including GST covers the course, graduation flight and celebration lunch. For further information, contact either Glenda Philpott on (02) 9522.8455 or Jacki King on (02) 9743.1831 or go to www.fearlessflyers.com.au

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