Since I found out about SOAR it has become a routine for me to come to this forum and post before I fly. The last time I flew was June 2016, when I had to rush down to Florida to be at my dying grandmother's bedside. It was fine! Well, the whole experience of watching her pass on was not "fine," though I'm glad I did it. But the flights there and back were fine.
Actually, thinking about it, in 2016 I flew three round trips, including the June trip (and the return flight was during some bad storms) and the March trip to and from San Diego, where my initial return flight got delayed 12 hours and ended up a red-eye with a connection in Charlotte. And it was ALL fine. I actually slept on the flight from Charlotte to Atlanta out of sheer exhaustion. I think I'm making progress!
This afternoon I'm flying up to White Plains (ATL -> HPN -> ATL) to go to the wedding of my mother's cousin. So not just my first flight in 17 months, but my first night away from my kids in 17 months. So I've been feeling a sort of low-level stomach-twisting anxiety the last couple of days. Not specifically connected to the flight itself, but just "Oh crap, there's going to be this huge change in the routine today." And also probably some underlying weird guilt about leaving my kids (for TWO DAYS. I come back Monday. Not at all rational. My mother-in-law's taking care of them today and my husband's coming back from a conference tomorrow).
If I have any actual flight-related anxiety, it's related to this being my first trip on a regional carrier in a while -- ExpressJet, which is apparently "winding down" its relationship with Delta. (ExpressJet DBA Delta Connection is the only Delta flight into White Plains.) I poked around the Airline Pilot Central forums a bit but don't have the expertise to know what the situation is for ExpressJet employees, other than they're not happy about losing the Delta contract (understandably). I mean, at the end of the day the people hired to fly the plane are still going to get it off the ground and back on the ground, because they're professionals. But, you know, I want to be supportive of the professionals. (Also the irrational-anxiety part of me whines about the Colgan Air crash. One time when I flew and I couldn't meet the pilots, I made a point of asking the flight attendants if the pilots had had enough sleep the night before.)
Anyway -- I hope everybody's doing well. The new forum looks great!
Actually, thinking about it, in 2016 I flew three round trips, including the June trip (and the return flight was during some bad storms) and the March trip to and from San Diego, where my initial return flight got delayed 12 hours and ended up a red-eye with a connection in Charlotte. And it was ALL fine. I actually slept on the flight from Charlotte to Atlanta out of sheer exhaustion. I think I'm making progress!
This afternoon I'm flying up to White Plains (ATL -> HPN -> ATL) to go to the wedding of my mother's cousin. So not just my first flight in 17 months, but my first night away from my kids in 17 months. So I've been feeling a sort of low-level stomach-twisting anxiety the last couple of days. Not specifically connected to the flight itself, but just "Oh crap, there's going to be this huge change in the routine today." And also probably some underlying weird guilt about leaving my kids (for TWO DAYS. I come back Monday. Not at all rational. My mother-in-law's taking care of them today and my husband's coming back from a conference tomorrow).
If I have any actual flight-related anxiety, it's related to this being my first trip on a regional carrier in a while -- ExpressJet, which is apparently "winding down" its relationship with Delta. (ExpressJet DBA Delta Connection is the only Delta flight into White Plains.) I poked around the Airline Pilot Central forums a bit but don't have the expertise to know what the situation is for ExpressJet employees, other than they're not happy about losing the Delta contract (understandably). I mean, at the end of the day the people hired to fly the plane are still going to get it off the ground and back on the ground, because they're professionals. But, you know, I want to be supportive of the professionals. (Also the irrational-anxiety part of me whines about the Colgan Air crash. One time when I flew and I couldn't meet the pilots, I made a point of asking the flight attendants if the pilots had had enough sleep the night before.)
Anyway -- I hope everybody's doing well. The new forum looks great!
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