From The Flight Deck presented by Dial A Pilot

Thanks for acknowledging all the ways people can get nervous about flying and the reasons for it. The practical explanations help so much!

I am flying for the first in 15 years and I’m so scared. I have flown a ton as a child but 15 years ago was the first time in a long time I flew and it wrecked me. I was so sick and terrified. Now in a few days I’m flying again and someone showed me your TikTok’s. That’s how I found your podcast. Thank you so much for doing this. I’m going to binge all your episodes before I fly out in 2 days. Im beyond scared and listening to y’all has already helped me. Im so grateful for this and what y’all are doing to educate us so we aren’t scared anymore. I wish I could bake y’all cookies or something. ☺️

I am so happy that Kyle created this service and now podcast with a team of incredibly knowledgeable pilots. My 1:1 call with Kyle helped immensely before I went to Europe and I binged listened to all of the episodes and can’t get enough! All of this new education has truly calmed my anxiety down knowing just how “normal it all is” and just how INSANELY safe aviation is. Although I truly still need to do the inner work on my stress and anxiety management, this information and episodes have calmed me and helped me get EXCITED about just enjoying my flights and thinking about my destinations all over the US and world. It’s a blessing to be able to fly and the pilots pride themselves on doing their absolute best to get us there safely!

Just found out about your podcast in the NYT. Great podcast! I love flying and do it often, but I get incredibly nervous during turbulence, and I when I find turbulence I tell myself “I will never fly anymore” (not possible given my inter-continental family). The reasons for my fear are 1) lack of control, 2) inability to stop the process and get out (claustrophobia). Once I was flying to Aspen in winter and there was a storm. We were repeatedly delayed due to weather. As we were boarding, I was super-nervous, so I started to talk to a fellow passenger. It turns out she was a pilot for special operations, but a passenger on that flight! And super nice! She explained to me that her dad was also a pilot and that he told her that “A plane wants to fly” (I guess Bernoulli’s forces???). So when I get nervous during turbulence I repeat to myself (and I actually SAY it) “A plane wants to fly”, like a mantra (but I’m still nervous). Could you get a bit into the details of the physics of fly8ing in your podcast, explained in understandable terms, if possible? I find this would be useful. Also, once during turbulence a very nice flight attendant gave me some herbal pills for relaxation. I really appreciated that she showed she cared. Finally, would you recommend that nervous flyers use some kind of prescription anti-anxiety pills? And which ones?