S. Worthen | Weblog

i dont remember the first time i flew - i think i was still in one of those baby sling things :)

I used to keep count of Atlantic crossings when we lived in Europe and were traveling back and forth between the US and Europe a lot when we were on vacation fromschool. I've lost count somewhere along the way though - the last count sometime in jr. high was 22.

Since then I've taken several trips to Europe and flown around the U.S. itself quite a bit. I may, or may not have gone up for a ride in a hot air balloon at a fair at some point. I'm suddenly faced with the disconcerting fact that I don't remember.

I've never flown in a private plane, though I have flown in some smaller planes, including planes with propellers. Our flight from Nuremberg to Munich on Air Dolomiti was -so- much fun. Hah.

I never used to be scared of flying in big planes until we hit turbulence back in 1999 coming back from Christmas in France with Sabs' family. That was a year of big wind and ice storms across Europe and our plane fell for what felt like 30 seconds over England, though it probably wasn't even that long. Since then I've started to get a creeping fear of flying, but I can still stay on top of it with slow breathing and distracting myself while in flight.

I dislike flying for an entirely different set of reasons since I've become a parent. I never want to fly alone with a cranky, screaming 2 year old who hates being pinned down, ever again.

I'm negotiating with Sabs for a trip to France in the spring - his fear of flying is much more severe than mine and may necessitate knocking him out with a rolling pin immediately before take-off.

I piloted a glider once when I 15ish - had to wear a parachute, but only to make the seat comfy as we weren't going to be high enough. First flight was when I was a baby, so how long ago it was is limited by my age. Now I find flights boring. T.