BSO trombonist has a helluva time flying home on British Airways.
There’s loads of information in his post I did not know — about flying with instruments and more. Essential reading.
I’ve had airplane anxiety on and off for as long as I can remember. First because I was repeatedly made nauseous as a kid by rough prop-plane flights from Portland OR to Bozeman MT (taking two days to visit the same relative by train was a delightful adventure — I’ve mentioned my fond train memories). To this day a rugged, mountainous route. For quite a while as an adult I was fine in the air, but then flights back to MT for winter holidays were so jagged sometimes that I developed near-panic attacks during take-offs and landings every time I got on a plane. This was bad for me professionally as well as emotionally. We stopped visiting out there in the winter but it took me years and years to calm down at the start and end of flights.
It was just around 9/11 when I was clearly getting better. And of course the experience of flying has gone nowhere but downhill for non-1%ers ever since. It’s a creepy parallel to the decline of civil society in general.
But hey — people say bad things about Air France, but it’s the only one I enjoy stepping on any more.
Miles To Go 