32 In Flight USA Celebrating 34 Years Dec ember 201 7By An nam arie Buonoc ore
H
ere atIn Fl ight USA,we have met
manyreade rsand indi vidua lsover
theyearswh olive forthe freed om
offlight. Ma ny of them wer eexci ted toge t
their wings at ayoung age. Ot hers took
cou rses at the colle ge or universi ty level
that prepa redthem for an excitingcareer in
avi ation. But atthe end oftheda y, wehav e
all he ard the famous line. .. “Flyi ng and
pub lic speaki ng are two of the wo rld ’s
bigg est fears.”Whil eitmay be diffic ul tfor
ma nyin our indust ry toun derstan d, fly ing
canbe adebil ita ting fear forman y.
Som ege tmo tion sicknes sin the air
wh ile othersthi nk deat his near at the
sli ghte st feel ing ofturb ulen ce. Some hate
loo kin gdo wn du etofear ofheig ht swh ile
oth ers canno tbe cramm ed into asmall
coachseatfor too long, maki ng both win -
dow andaisleseats bad option s. Many of
In Flig ht’ sreader swo ul dnot beable to
ima gi ne alifewi thout fli gh tand the won -
de rful travel,edu cat ion al, and pleasu ra-
ble be ne fitsitbr ings. Imagin eno tbein g
able to visi t friends and fami ly out of
sta te ornot being able to atten daspecial
eventdue to fear of flying.
Th ankful ly for thos ewh osuffe rfro m
this pho bia,there is aclinic in SanMateo ,
Cali f., called the Fea r of Flying Clin ic.
Close tobo thSan Carlo sAirport (SQL)
andPa loAl toAirp or t(PAO), thiswo nd er-
ful orga ni zation with frie nd ly profess ion-
alswel comes tho se with fly ingfear that
ran ges fro m mild to sev ere. Clin ic
Director ,JeanneMcElh atton ,gra ntedIn
FlightUSA the followin ginterv iew.
In Fl igh t USA:How andwh en did
the Fear of Flyi ng Cl ini cget started?
Je anne McEl hat ton :It started 39
ye ars agoin 1978 when Fran Grant ,on e
of ou rearly membe rs,was married to a
ma nwho was afraidto fly. When they
retire d, they wantedtogo to Au strali a,
andshesaid, “I will on ly gobyship on e
wa y.Wehave toget yo uflyi ng .” Sowe
got tog ether with some of the other 99 s
(women pi lot ’sorga nizatio n) anddevis ed
aprog ramfor fear offly ing. Her hus ban d
we nt thr ough itand agreed to fly hom e
from Aust ral ia. The pro gram was sosuc-
cessful that he fell asleep du rin gturbu -
lence .Af ter hi m,we thoug ht that wo ul d
be the endof the prog ram, bu tthere were
ma ny otherswith this same fear, soit
too koff from ther e.
IF :Who arethe foun ders?
JM :Fr anLaw renc eand Iare the
found ers.
IF: We re you born and raise d in
Ca liforn ia? Did anybody inyour fami lyfly?
JM: Ye s, Iwasbo rn and raise din
Oakl and, Calif.Iamdefin itel yanati ve.
Nobo dy inmy fami ly ever fle w, so Iam
thefirst in my famil y.
IF :Whe ndi dyou lea rn how to fly
andwh atwasyo urearly aviati on car eer
like?
JM: Ilearne dhow to flyright out of
highschoo lat age18 .Iwa ntedto be a
pilo t, bu tIwasagroun dscho oland flight
instruc torbecause when Igot mycertif i-
cates, I was the wron g gend er. They
would no thireme ,soIhad to go and find
som ealte rna tive activi ty to ke epmein
aviatio n. Itaugh tatboth the Coll ege of
SanMateoand Foo thi ll Co lleg einLo s
Alto s,Calif .The reis ahuge amount to
learn, and Ide ve loped an FAA vi de ofor
flight instruct ion. I start ed off doing
grou nd schoo landthen bec ame aflig ht
instruc tortoearnmore mon ey.
IF :Wha tkind ofan organ iza tion is
theFear of Flyi ngCl inic?
JM:Itisa50 1C .3nonpr ofitdedica t-
edto thecom mu nityandthose who are
afraidtofly.Wearehere to he lp anybod y.
Weha ve hadstude nts take tra ins from
east ofhe reand north ofhe re to atte nd
our clin ics.Allproceedsfrom theclinic s
go back into the organ iza tion to help
mo repe op leove rcome the fearof fly ing.
One no tabl estory wa sawoman who
came from Hawaii byshi p. He rsonwa s
goi ng to be ordaine dapri est in Ala ska.
The reisno wayto get fro mHaw aii to
Alaska witho ut flyin g. She cam e he re,
tookthe class, flewup toAla ska ,watche d
his ordinatio n, and flew ho me to Hawai i.
She wasarealsuccessstory.We’ve had a
lotof tho se.
IF :Wha tdo you dodur ing the clin -
ics? How do you help pe ople? Wha t
encourag ingwordsdoyou us e?
JM:Dur ing the clinicwe don’t say so
much as we do br ingin theprofessionals
totalktothe m. Webringin pilo ts,flig ht
attendan ts, andairtraff ic contr ol people.
Wegivethem tour softhe mainten ance
base and atour ofthe main tower. It’s edu-
cational .Thebi gg est problemfor ma ny of
the se peop le istha tthey havemiscon cep -
tion sabo ut avi ation .Wh en they see how
coor dinated andstructu red every thing is in
the avi ation com mu nity ,they gain abetter
perspe ctiveonthi s. The early part ofthe
clinic is no tabo ut lectu rin gthem.It is a
hand s-on tour that isedu catio nal.
IF :Doyo uwe lcome peop le ofall
ages?Wha tage is bes t?
JM: You don’ tha ve to be any age.
Wewelcome allpe op le, bu twe ha ve had
som everyyoun gpeop le come in,like
teenagersor alit tlebit above tha twhowe re jus tbore dand goof ing off ,so we
requir eteen agers and youn ge rpeop le to
haveapa rent with the m. The pr ogr amis
dev elop edinadul tfashion ,so it isnot
recom mended for youn g children.
How eve r, Ihavedone pr iva te instr uct ion
wit h chi ldre n in whi ch I ha ve he lpe d
the move rco mefearof flyin g. Itakethem
ove rto the Hil ler Muse um whe re wedo
lots ofintr oduc tor ystuff ,but Ionly do
this as a pr iva te pers on. Th is is not
thr ough the Fe ar of Fl ying Cl inic .The
progra misbett erfor adult s.
IF :Wh atplane sdo you use ?Doe s
the pr og ram invo lve taking afligh t?
JM: Itis ver ydiffi cult to ge tafligh t
tha twil laccom modat ethe wh ol ecla ss.
We do not us eou row npl ane s,as the re
areusually about 25 in the cla ss,and the y
aremore afraid of mainst ream comme r-
cia lpla nes rathe rtha nsma ll GA aircraft.
We have a part nershi p with Alaska
Air line s, and weusual ly go up to Seattle
for apicni cand alit tle celeb ratio ninone
of their 737 s.Itis aone -dayevent in
whi ch we come ba ck the sameda y.
We ha ve trave led toSa nDiego as
wel l, whi ch was love ly, but Alaska
Air line sis the onl yairl ine that will work
wit husinterm sofsea ting arrangem ent s.
We like to hav eour gr ou psit toge the r, as
it eases the ir fears. The ywor kwi th us
ver yha ppil y.Al so, mos tair line swant a
nam eand apa yment up fron t. Th ey wor k
wit huswell be caus eif someo ne ha sto
cance lat the last minute ,it work sout. We
don’ talwa ys know who wi ll beready to
fly atthe end.
IF :Some pe ople might not be ready
to tak ethe flight at theend?
JM:Ye s, theypayforboththeclinic
andtheflight.If they don’t go,we justreim-
bursethem, butthat happens sel domly.
IF :How ma nydo you enroll in each
cli nic? Ar ether eeno ugh to fill apla ne?
JM: Oh, he ave nsno! Whe nwefirs t
sta rte d, ma ny pe ople wer e reluc tant to
adm itthey had apr oble m–men espe cial-
ly. The earl iest cl ini cs were mostly
wom en. Iamsur eyou ha ve seen how
men have evo lved in terms ofadmi tti ng
tha tthey have pr oble ms and be ing able to
say so in apu blic envi ronme nt.
In the be ginn ing, we dowha twecall
ago- aro und. Wego around the roo mand
hav eeach per son expl ain why they areat
the clini c. The ycom eup wit hsuc hsto -
rie s, like “Oh, we had ater rible flig ht
her e” or“Wehad turbu lence, weha dthis ,
we had tha t.” An dby the time you ge tall
the way arou nd, the ysay ,“Boy, Ididn’ t
know ther ewer etha tmany pr obl ems.”
The ypi ck up onother pe ople ’s prob lem s.Tha tis when thepr ofessionalscome in
and talk about theirba ckgrounds,the ir
traini ng ,andthe indu stry.
This ind ustr yis unlikemost.Ifthere
is som ething wrong,theywo rkatitand
fix it. It’ snot lik ethe autom ob ile industry
whe rethe yhide theirproblemsandthen
com eou tlater wi tharecall.Th eirrepu ta-
tion is going to beruinediftheyhave
acciden ts and so forth,so theyfixit.The
peo ple who wor konplane sareresponsi-
ble .Theyha ve tosignapa perthatsays
the yhave fix edthesepr obl emsandhave
com plie dwith FAAregul ations,andtha t
pap er follow s the airplane. It can be
traced ba ckto the m.
So, to answ er you r que stion, we
won ’t take mo re than 25. We do thi s
bec ause ofthefacilities,likethetower,
for insta nc e. Itcan’ttake tha tmanype o-
ple. The y all have to have the ir IDs
che cked toma kesuretheyareU.S.citi-
zens.Ifthe yarenot, U. S.citizens,the y
arestill we lcome inthe clinic,butthey
cannot go into thetower.This hasonly
hap pen edonc eortwice.
IF:Whe re aretheclinicsheld?
JM:We hol dallofou rclinicsatthe
Sa nFr anci sco Ai rport(SFO).Itgetsthem
into the envi ron ment .Someofthemare
afraid to eve ngo totheairpo rt.We ho ld it
the re,and some ofthemsay,“Justgetting
her etoda ywas traum atic.”Wepushthe m
to get acqu aint ed withit.Th at’swhy we
hold itthe re.Uni tedhasbeenverygo od
to us. Th ey used tohave thelargest ma in-
tenanc ebase in thewor ld, sowe’vebeen
ver yfortu nat eto seethat.We ’venever
had any problem withanyofou rstu-
den ts, or clie nts rather, ge ttinghurt,mak-
ing insu ranc ecla ims ,oranyt hing.
Wh en 9/11happe ne d, wewere out ed
from the airport lik e eve rybody else.
Finally, aft ersom etime, Iwrot eto Un ited
Airlines and totheFAA,saying, “Lo ok ,
we’v e never had any prob lems ...” The y
agreed to letus backin onc ethi ng sgo t
back tonormal. Th eykno wof us, bu talot
oftheairline sdon ’t. Weareno tallo we dto
adve rtiseat theairpo rt, so wehaveto con -
stantly rem ind them that we exi st.
IF: Wh at are some success stories
you have seen?Are the re any notabl e
alu mni?
JM:Wel l, Da nielleSteel isan alum -
na. Not only wassheabigsuccessstor y,
but she brough tbacktwoorthreeof her
chi ldr en to theclini c.Andthe nwehave
ma nytes timon ials andcomments from
peo ple who haveenjoyedtheclini cas
well. Thi sone lad ycameupatthegradu-
ati on ceremony (weallowthemtocomeFINDING STRE NGT H INWINGS AN DOVERCOMING FEAR
An Int er vi ew wi th Fe ar of Fl yin g Cli nic Di re ct or, Jeann e McElha tto n
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